In defence of u-turns

I find myself in the unfamiliar situation of saying something nice about a Tory government. But I must say that among all their policy errors there have been a few occasions when I have found myself applauding them. Let me make it clear I dislike the almost universal refusal to give a direct answer to a straightforward question, the parrot-like repetition of a No-10 taught phrase such as "we're being led by the science" or "the journey was within the legal guidelines", and constant use of statistics which as the admirable More or Less (on Radio 4) regularly demonstrates are anything from inaccurate to misleading.

Nevertheless, there seems to be a generally accepted view that u-turns are a sign of weakness in a government - and to be pilloried. On the contrary, it seems to me refusing to admit you were wrong and changing direction can be pig-headed folly. My wife has to tolerate my navigation when we drive anywhere. Not infrequently I direct her the wrong way. Were we to persist we'd either take an awfully long route or completely fail to reach our destination. Sometimes u-turns are the best policy.

Of course taking the wrong road in the first place was unwise. Yet it takes humility and courage, especially if you're a political leader under public scrutiny, to admit that you were mistaken. And I don't think I've ever heard a government representative issuing an unqualified apology. Matt Hancock refused to apologise on Thursday morning for accusing premiership footballers such as Marcus Rashford for failing to do their bit in the pandemic. He had the gall to attribute some of that young man's achievement to his original comments, and seemed to confuse him with the star of the Harry Potter films. Even Boris Johnson spoiled his u-turn in reponse to Marcus Rashford's impassioned plea for the continuation of lunch vouchers for free-school-meal children by declaring at the Tuesday briefing that he'd 'only become aware' of Marcus Rashford's campaign that day. Presumably he doesn't watch even the BBC News, as it was a major item the day before. But credit where credit's due. Someone in government made the decision to reverse the previous mean policy of stopping it when "term time" finished. Presumably they were moved more by political than compassionate considerations - consider the adverse publicity in the media of starving children on the streets. But at least the right thing was done in the end.

Then there was the schools' affair. At first Mr Williamson thought it would be a good idea to send lots of children back to school. When headteachers pointed out that you can't conjure extra space out of nowhere and parents refused to send their children into potential, perhaps imagined, risk, he scratched his head and changed his mind. So the media-maligned teachers, having worked their socks off to provide distance learning to the pupils, many of them at the same time as providing the children of key workers in-school teaching, now face the job of teaching Reception, Years 1 and 6. Reluctantly it seems the minister has listened to the professionals, and suddenly policy changed. And vague - definitely vague - plans for September - definitely September - have been announced. Well, so far, so good. As instructed, we watch this space.

The "reforms" of the amateur Ms Truss within her justice brief have largely been rolled back to the relief of lawyers and the probation service, including the abandonment of her privatisation of probation.

Of course the biggest change of direction was announced by the young Chancellor of the Exchequer when he became, by force of circumstances, an adherent of corbynomics in a manner trashed months earlier by his boss. However in hindsight we'll probably agree that his decisive action will have saved the economy from total catastrophe. Taking advantage of currently rock-bottom interest rates, he borrowed billions of pounds in order to pay for locked-down workers on furlough. And so in company with other countries we find our economy with a debt larger than the GDP. Of all government ministers Rishi Sunak is the most impressive, not least as a communicator.

The Track and Trace app abandonment illustrates vividly the Prime Minister's pig-headed determination to "beat the world". The Government seems intent on making its own mistakes rather than learning from other countries' experience: late lock-down, inadequate stocks of PPE, abandoned testing, trying to create our own app. Of course it would be best not to go in the wrong direction in the first place, but turning round is better than pursuing that road. And we must acknowledge that no government would get everything tight.