U-TURN if you want to, Margaret Thatcher said famously – before vowing to do no such thing. But, boy, does this Government want to. In the wake of that embarrassment over pasties, here is an up-to-date list of its many rethinks, retractions, reversals and changes of direction.

• Anonymity for rape defendants – July 2010
• A 55 per cent threshold to dissolve parliament – July 2010
• Scrapping free school milk for under-fives – August 2010
• Axing NHS Direct – September 2010
• Scrapping Domestic Violence Protection Orders – November 2010
• Cuts to school sports partnerships – December 2010
• Scrapping free ‘Bookstart’ in schools – January 2011
• Selling off public forests – February 2011
• Cutting debt advice services – February 2011
• Cutting housing benefit for long-term jobseekers – February 2011
• Enshrining the Military Covenant in law – May 2011
• Refusal to ban wild animals in circuses – June 2011
• A 50 per cent sentence reduction for an early guilty plea – June 2011
• BBC World Service cuts – June 2011
• Reprieve for some coastguard centres – July 2011
• Scrapping all NHS targets – November 2011
• Scrapping the Office of the Chief Coroner – November 2011
• Scrapping the Youth Justice Board – November 2011
• Cutting mobility support for disabled people in care homes – December 2011
• Scrapping child benefit for all top-earners – March 2012
• Scrapping video games tax relief – March 2012
• Unannounced Ofsted inspections – May 2012
• Bringing forward the Scottish independence referendum – May 2012
• Buying the wrong Joint Strike Fighter – May 2012
• VAT on hot pasties – May 2012
• Full VAT on static caravans – May 2012
• Secret inquests – May 2012
• Destruction of buzzard nests, to protect pheasant shoots – yesterday
• Capping tax relief for charitable donations – summer 2012 (all-but confirmed).

To me, the U-turn frenzy is important in three ways, the first being that such stark incompetence saps public support – as clearly seen in David Cameron’s plummeting poll ratings. Second, even the most loyal Conservative MPs will be reluctant to defend future unpopular policies if they could be dumped – leaving those MPs with egg on their faces.

But, third and crucially, the Government has yet to U-turn over its most important policy – the harsh austerity drive, to wipe out the Budget deficit – despite the painful slide back into recession. It is on that economic strategy – not the list above – that it will be judged.

FEW would want to be Foreign Secretary at the moment, wrestling with the terrible dilemma of how Britain should respond to the sickening slaughter in Syria.

Therefore, few would begrudge William Hague a small perk, when he hosted a leading campaigner against sexual violence in war zones – glamorous Hollywood star Angelina Jolie.