The Saatchi Gallery is to stage a retrospective exhibition of the Coalition Government’s most memorable U-turns, it was announced today. In what has been described as “the most comprehensive collection of u-turns in one room”, the exhibition will be the first of its kind to examine the beauty of this political technique.
The retrospective will feature the top ten most popular u-turns since the coalition came to power in 2010. In an inventive touch, it also houses a w-turn corner, which features u-turns where the coalition later double-backed or deferred.
“Considerable emotion”
Prime Minister David Cameron said he felt “considerable emotion” at the thought of revisiting some of the u-turns to be featured. “Some are still well remembered, such as the pasty tax and selling off English forests” he said. “But some have lain forgotten in dusty copies of Hansard and it will be an emotional moment when we are reunited with them”.
Michael Gove, whose own much-revered u-turn on the proposed English Baccalureate certificate is featured prominently in the show, was reticent about the exhibition. He later commented that he was glad the u-turn was being recognised as a skilled political technique, rather than being mistaken as it so often is for blatant commercial climbdown, cowardice or clumsiness.
Anti-badger cull campaigners are expected to boycott the exhibition in protest against the section featuring the badger cull w-turn, where the government postponed the cull due to rainy weather only to take up arms in summer 2013.
The success of the u-turn manoeuvre is now showing in hard figures, with membership of the Conservative Party almost halved since David Cameron became party leader eight years ago.
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Coalition to get U-turn retrospective
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