Tax U-Turns

On 25 April 2008 edition of Have I Got News for You guest Ed Byrne highlighted an interesting phenomenon in the context of the Government U-turn re the 'abolition' of the 10p tax rate.

He said he couldn't understand what all the fuss was about. 'Why are we so critical about such U-Turns?' he asked. "The media highlighted how ill-thought out was the proposed policy change and demanded that it be withdrawn. The Chancellor appeared to listen and announced plans to mitigate the impact and compensate the 'losers'. "(Paul Merton interrupted to suggest that it's not nice to refer to the lowest paid people as 'losers'). "And then what happened? The media criticised the U-turn and slammed the Chancellor for his actions."

"I don't get it" said Byrne. "What do they want? It's as if they're saying - You idiot. What did you want to do a U-turn for? You shouldn't be listening to what people want. Much better you should stick with that awful unpopular policy."

There's more than a grain of truth in the observation I think. (NB: Probably doesn't come across well in print. You had to be there!)