What Liz Truss can learn from U-turns of the past after her 'enormous embarrassment'
It is one of the quickest U-turns ever executed by a new government. But then, Britain's new cabinet are in a hurry.
Liz Truss took the oath as prime minister at Balmoral on 6 September. Almost immediately mourning the Queen suspended political activity for a fortnight.
As soon as it resumed, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng unveiled his fiscal plans to MPs on 23 September, including a cut in the top rate of income tax.
Just 10 days later on Monday 3 October he was tweeting, early before breakfast: "We get it, and we have listened... I'm announcing we are not proceeding with the abolition of the 45p tax rate."
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The U-turn was an enormous embarrassment for the new team on the opening day of the annual Conservative Party conference - made worse because the new prime minister is openly courting comparison with the Iron Lady and her economic liberalisation measures.
U-turns have been anathema for British politicians ever since the Tory Conference in 1980 when Margaret Thatcher's speech writer Sir Ronnie Millar gave her the punning lines: "You turn if you want to, the lady's not for turning."
On the other hand, political history shows that U-turns don't necessarily make things worse for a pragmatic democratic government which really "listens" and takes the chance to change course.
Bill Clinton, a president known for his versatility on many big issues, maintained that "flip-flops", as the Americans call them, are helpful because they give voters hope that their leaders might come round to their views.
Over time, almost all parties "do a 180" reversing policy. Look at how the Conservatives and Labour have flipped their stances on social issues, such as gay rights and capital punishment, and swapped their attitudes to membership of the European community.
These shifts take place over years, as a result of riding the tides of history. They are not screeching U-turns, even though they may sometimes have defining moments - such as the Labour leader Neil Kinnock's modernising switches against unilateral nuclear disarmament.
A classic U-turn occurs, as this week, when ministers insist again and again that they have a brilliant new idea only to abandon it a few days later because others have pointed out that it is unworkable or simply bad.
Often the best tactic for the minister is to accept the rebuff and try to move on in another direction.
Tony Blair's government was forced into frequent U-turns in its "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" drive.
There were U-turns away from introducing ID cards and marching offenders to cash points to pay on the spot fines.
New Labour reckoned the thwarted attempts none the less enforced its hard line law and order reputation.
But Gordon Brown looked weak forever after he flip-flopped on Labour's preparations for a general election in the Autumn of 2007 and denied that he had called off the vote because of deteriorating opinion polls.
In 2012 a very senior official sniggered about George Osborne's plan to introduce VAT on "hot takeaway and rotisserie food".
The smile was wiped off his face when the newspapers dubbed it "the pasty tax" and opponents ranging from Greggs bakery to Labour campaigned against an "out of touch" government.
The tax was abandoned in a U-turn within weeks.
Osborne tried to take credit for his change of heart. This can sometimes be a mistake.
Nick Clegg deliberately U-turned on the Liberal Democrats opposition to university tuition fees as a demonstration of his loyalty to the coalition with the Conservatives. Liberal Democrat voters saw it as a betrayal.
Clegg eventually U-turned again by issuing an apology, which was set to music and became a meme on social media.
It can also be a mistake for a leader to try to pretend that their U-turn does not really matter.
During the 2017 general election campaign, Theresa May made a popular move when she abandoned her manifesto's widely criticised "dementia tax" plans to pay for social care.
But she became a laughing stock after repeatedly squawking "nothing has changed!" at a televised news conference following her change of policy.
Read more: Liz Truss's month of mayhem
The prime minister and the chancellor do not seem to be taking many lessons from the U-turns of the past. Their first reaction was to try to play down the importance of their policy.
Unlike many of their proposed tax reductions, it was not trailed by Truss during the leadership campaign.
The chancellor admits he did not forewarn other cabinet colleagues that he was going to make the 45p announcement.
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He has since claimed that it was not central to his mini-budget because he estimates that it would have only accounted for a relatively trivial £2bn dent in the £45bn-plus hole he plans to make in the nation's balance sheet.
The problem for Kwarteng is that the top rate tax cut was the symbolic cherry on the cake of his "pro-growth", pro wealth creation plans. It was not revealed in advance because he knew it would be controversial and miscalculated that it would also be an ideological knock-out blow.
He is an economic historian and his proposed cut was a deliberate echo of the celebrated top-rate cut by Nigel Lawson, Mrs Thatcher's chancellor, in 1988.
Unfortunately the markets reacted badly, seeing it as a hollow parody of the "Lawson boom" because economic circumstances were totally different back then.
The prime minister and chancellor were forced to abandon their flagship policy because it became clear that Conservative MPs would not vote a tax cut for the rich through parliament during this cost of living crisis.
The mood lifted in Birmingham because representatives could get down to normal business, no longer preoccupied with defending the politically indefensible.
Then Kwarteng and Truss made clear in their speeches to conference that they intend to press on with "Trussonomics", so setting themselves up for their next U-turn.
Ministers have expended a lot of political capital recently under orders to keep the option open that benefits might be raised by less than the rate of inflation. This would break a commitment by Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, while generating a significant saving.
Read more:
Is there any way back for Truss from the 45p tax cut U-turn?
Truss's U-turn will embolden her many critics in the Tory party
Tory conference is shrouded in gloom - has Liz Truss already sealed her own fate?
It is now obvious that Conservative MPs won't back this measure either.
Senior figures opposing the move such as Grant Shapps, Michael Gove and Iain Duncan Smith have now been joined by cabinet ministers including Penny Mordaunt, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Robert Buckland.
In spite of the outcry, the government has still not confirmed what it intends to do about upgrading benefits or whether it will make an announcement or publish OBR reports before the distant scheduled date of 23 November.
U-turns may seldom be fatal in themselves but they are typically a symptom of an incompetent or overconfident government.
