The
government on Thursday announced that cigarettes could be sold only in plain
packets – a major public health policy that
previously appeared to have been dropped.
The U-turn is the latest in
a long line of reversals from the coalition government, including about-faces on
the "pasty tax" and "caravan tax" after the 2012 budget. Below is a list of all
the coalition's U-turns so far:
2013
27 November
2013: plain
packaging for cigarettes. In July the health secretary, Jeremy
Hunt, had announced that ministers were going to hold off from introducing
standardised packaging for cigarettes until the evidence from Australia – which
introduced the measure last year – had been evaluated. That was widely seen as
ministers dropping the policy, but in November the coalition surprised
commentators by giving ministers the power to introduce the policy, although
actual implementation will be subject to an evidence review.
26 November 2013: leverage
ratios for banks. Labour accused George Osborne of a U-turn after
the chancellor asked Bank governor Mark Carney to
review leverage ratios for banks – an indicator of their financial health that
measures how much capital underpins their loans. Cathy Jamieson, Labour's shadow
financial secretary, accused Osborne of changing tack because he knew he would
lose a vote over
recommendations in a high-profile parliamentary report to make banks
financially stronger through tightening the leverage ratio.
25 November 2013: payday
loans. Ending years of resistance to such a move, George Osborne
announced a legal cap on the overall cost of payday loans. The chancellor told
MPs last March: “I have to say—this was certainly the view of the previous
Government, too—that although it could be worth looking at, simply introducing a
cap might have the effect of pushing a lot of people into a completely
unregulated black economy. I am not sure that any of us would want to see
that.”
6 September 2013: lobbying.
The government announced a U-turn on controversial lobbying legislation
after a campaign by charity executives who believed the bill would hit their
ability to campaign. Ministers tabled a series of amendments to the legislation
and dropped proposals to change the way campaign spending by organisations other
than political parties was defined.
5 September 2013: legal
aid competition. Plans to award legal aid contracts to the
lowest bidders following criticisms it would reduce justice to a "factory
mentality" were scrapped after fears were raised that price-competitive
tendering for legal aid would allow multinational firms to provide justice at
the cheapest cost.
17 July 2013: alcohol
pricing. The government scrapped a plan to introduce minimum unit
pricing for alcohol, saying there was not enough concrete evidence that the unit
price of 45p, which had been floated last year, would reduce the level of
problem drinking without "penalising those who drink responsibly".
12 March 2013: bedroom
tax for foster carers and armed forces. Iain Duncan Smith, the work
and pensions secretary, announced a partial U-turn on the government’s
controversial bedroom tax, exempting foster carers and armed forces
personnel who live at home.
5 March 2013: private
sector involvement in NHS. After pressure from doctors, Lib Dem
ministers, and Labour, health secretary Jeremy Hunt rewrote regulations that
would have increased private sector involvement in the NHS, just four weeks before they
were due to come into effect.
7 Febuary 2013: GCSE
replacement. In September 2012, Gove said he wanted to replace what
he saw as discredited, grade-inflated GCSEs with a more rigorous qualification
to be assessed by exams only rather than coursework or modular elements. This
English Baccalaureate Certificate (EBC) was opposed by the Liberal
Democrats, teaching unions and famous names in the arts world, who felt
their subjects would be downgraded, and concerns were also raised by exams
watchdog Ofqual and the education select committee. Gove scrapped the plan to
replace GCSEs with the EBC five months later, although many of his other planned
changes to GCSEs will still take place.
2012
30 November 2012: flood
defences. Devastating flooding across Britain forced David Cameron
into a partial U-turn over deep cuts to spending on flood defences. An extra
£120m would allow 50 delayed schemes to go ahead, although hundreds of projects
remained without financial support. The government cut flood defence spending on
entering office, slashing it from £665m in 2010-11, to £540m for each year until
2014-15.
28 November 2012: payday
loans. In the face of possible defeat in the Lords, the government
agreed to change the law to give the new Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
powers to set a cap on exorbitant interest rates charged on payday loans. The
government had said a cap could harm the interests of users of payday loan
firms.
23 October 2012: badger
cull. A controversial planned badger cull aimed at curbing the rise
in bovine TB was postponed until summer 2013 following public and scientific
opposition. Owen Paterson, the environment secretary, blamed the rainy weather,
time-consuming legal challenges, and the Olympics taking up police resources for
the delay.
19 October 2012: energy
tariffs. After telling MPs at prime minister's questions that "we
will be legislating so energy companies have to give the lowest tariff to their
customers", Cameron was forced to admit the next day that he had only raised an
option for inclusion in the energy bill. The government is now
expected to demand only that firms limit their tariffs to four and tell
customers which one is cheapest for them.
2 October 2012: West
Coast Mainline. The government scrapped its decision to award the
West Coast Mainline rail franchise to FirstGroup after admitting there were
"significant technical flaws" in the process. Up to that point two transport
secretaries had insisted the bidding process was robust in the face of
threatened legal action by Virgin Trains.
11 September 2012: payments
to victims of minor criminal assaults. The Ministry of Justice had
wanted to limit payments under the criminal injuries compensation scheme so that
only seriously injured victims would be eligible, but after critics claimed the
move would leave victims unable to seek redress for attacks the plans were
scrapped.
27 June 2012: fuel
duty rise. The government backed away from a planned 3p increase in
fuel duty in the face of opposition from motoring organisations and business
groups. The U-turn led to a disastrous appearance on the BBC's Newsnight from
then-Treasury minister Chloe Smith, who was unable to explain which departments
would contribute to an underspend that would pay for the change. She was moved
to the Cabinet Office a few months later.
31 May
2012: charitable
donations. In the 2012 budget, George Osborne, the
chancellor, announced he would cap tax relief on charitable donations at £50,000
or 25% of income. This was greeted by protests from charities, which warned they
could lose a significant proportion of their income and suggested the policy
went against the principle of Cameron's "big society". It was scrapped two
months later.
30 May 2012:
buzzards.
The environment department had planned to destroy buzzards' nests to protect
pheasant shoots. The proposal caused uproar among conservationists, who said the
government itself admitted it was based only on anecdotal evidence.
28 May 2012:
pasty
tax. Also in the budget, Osborne announced plans
to charge VAT on food designed to cool down, such as sausage rolls and pasties,
prompting protests in Cornwall, claims that ministers were "out of touch", and
embarrassing photo-opportunities and press conferences as politicians of all
stripes rushed to prove they loved eating pasties and sausage rolls. The plan
was scrapped two months later.
28 May 2012:
caravan
tax. The budget also levied VAT on static caravans. Again the
government was accused of being out of touch with ordinary people, and was
subject to fierce lobbying from the Caravan Club. Two months later the new VAT
rate was cut from 20% to 5%.
28 May 2012:
secret
courts. A government green paper on keeping
evidence from the security services secret was watered down following opposition
from the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg.
15 May 2012:
Scottish
independence referendum. Scottish Tories were
furious after Cameron said he was not "too fussy" about the date of the
referendum – in effect disowning the previous Conservative line that a
plebiscite must be held within two years.
9 May 2012:
Joint
Strike Fighter. The coalition had replaced Labour
plans to buy a jump jet for the Royal Navy's new aircraft carriers, instead
plumping for a "cats and traps" model that could catapult and recover a version
of the Joint Strike Fighter. But the JSF model the coalition wanted became beset
by delays and technical problems, meaning the government had to revert to
Labour's plans.
5 May 2012:
unannounced
Ofsted inspections. The chief inspector of schools
announced in January 2012 the introduction of no-notice inspections, but Gove
backed down a few months later following protests from headteachers, and
admitted there was a perception that Ofsted was becoming "an arm of the Spanish
Inquisition".
21 March 2012:
video
games tax relief. In the March 2010 budget, Labour
promised the same sort of tax relief for the video games industry that the film
sector gets, but this was scrapped when the coalition came to power. Two years
later Osborne changed his mind.
2011
1 December 2011:
Disability Living
Allowance. The government announced plans in the
2010 spending review to cut the "mobility" part of DLA, worth £51 a week, for
those in residential care, but after criticism that this was "callous" dropped
the plans the following year.
23 November 2011:
chief
coroner. Kenneth Clarke, the justice secretary,
scrapped plans to abolish the post of chief coroner after a year-long campaign
to save the post by the Royal British Legion.
23 November 2011:
Youth
Justice Board. The board was supposed to be
scrapped in the government's "bonfire of the quangos", but in the face of
opposition ministers changed their minds.
17 November 2011:
NHS
waiting times. Andrew Lansley, the then-health
secretary, had criticised waiting time targets as unnecessary and bureaucratic,
but in the face of evidence that waiting times were creeping up he introduced a
new rule to halt the growing number of patients not being treated within the 18
weeks guaranteed under the NHS constitution.
14 July 2011:
coastguard
centres. The government had planned to reduce the
number of coastguard centres from 18 to eight, with only three open 24 hours a
day, but partially backtracked, changing the plans to ensure 10 would stay open
24 hours a day.
22 June 2011:
BBC
World Service. William Hague, the foreign
secretary, partially reversed huge cuts to World Service funding by announcing
an extra £2.2m a year for the BBC's Arabic Service. A report on the Foreign
Office website: "Massive U-turn on BBC World Service funding."
21 June 2011:
sentencing
discounts. Cameron abandoned plans to offer a 50%
sentence discount to offenders who submitted early guilty pleas after tabloid
criticisms of "soft justice".
13 May 2011:
circus
animals. The government replaced a proposed ban on
wild animals in circuses with new licensing conditions.
17 February 2011:
housing
benefit cut. The government announced a 10% cut in
housing benefit for anyone unemployed for more than a year in the June 2010
budget. Clegg feared that private sector landlords might be reluctant to rent to
jobseeker's allowance claimants if their housing benefit was at risk, and the
following spring the plans were dropped.
17 February 2011:
selling off the
forests. "We got this one wrong," said the
environment secretary, Caroline Spelman, when she abandoned plans to sell
258,000 hectares of state-owned woodland in England only one month after they
had been announced.
12 February 2011:
Financial
Inclusion Fund. In January 2011 the government
said it would axe a £27m-a-year scheme paying for specialist debt advisers.
Campaigners said this could lead to ill or vulnerable people lacking help
dealing with serious debt. A month later the government said the service would
continue for another year; it has now been replaced
by the Face to Face debt advice programme.
9 February 2011:
military
covenant. In June 2010 Cameron said a promise of
duty of care in return for the military's sacrifices would be enshrined in law.
But the armed forces bill eventually published required the Ministry of Defence
only to produce an annual report on the covenant.
2010
26 December 2010:
Bookstart.
Writers such as Philip Pullman and Andrew Motion protested in December 2010
after the government announced plans to scrap a scheme providing free books for
children, and a few days later the plan was abandoned. However, two months later
it
was announced that Bookstart would lose half its funding.
20 December 2010:
school
sports. In October 2010 Gove announced that the
education department would no longer fund the £162m-a-year school sport
partnerships. After heavy criticism from headteachers, Olympic sportspeople,
Labour, young people and others, two months later Gove backtracked and said he
had found £112m to keep the system going.
25 November 2010:
domestic
violence. Theresa May, the home secretary,
announced in July 2010 she would abandon a scheme to remove violent partners
from the family home. After pressure from charities she performed a U-turn four
months later.
16 November 2010:
photographer
and camerawoman on the public payroll. Andrew
Parsons was Cameron's personal photographer before he became prime minister, and
Nicky Woodhouse made "Webcameron" videos for the Tory website, but there was an
outcry when they were placed on the public payroll when the Tories took office.
Cameron defended this as a cost-saving measure, but a few days later decided the
Conservative party would pay their salaries.
12 November 2010:
rape
anonymity. In the coalition agreement in May 2010,
the Tories and Liberal Democrats had suggested extending anonymity in rape cases
to defendants. After protests from women's groups, who said it would have sent a
message to juries that victims in rape cases should not be believed, five months
later the government said there was not sufficient evidence to justify the move
and scrapped it.
9 September 2010:
NHS
Direct. In August 2010 the Department of Health
said the NHS Direct service would be scrapped. A month later Lansley said the
department just meant the phone number.
8 August 2010:
free
school milk. Anne Milton, a Tory health minister,
suggested withdrawing the scheme that gives free school milk to under-fives. The
idea was quickly stamped on by No 10 – presumably because of its echoes of
Margaret Thatcher's scrapping of free milk for seven- to 11-year-olds in
1971.
5 July 2010:
dissolution
of parliament. In what was greeted with delight by
the media as the first big U-turn of the coalition, the government's plans to
block the dissolution of parliament without the agreement of at least 55% of MPs
were altered to allow a simple majority of MPs to trigger such a
dissolution.
Guardian
