The 10 Most Embarrassing U-Turns in British Politics

UK politicians flip-flop like no others! For this list, WatchMojoUK counts down the 10 Most Embarrassing Decisions and U-Turns in British Politics, looking at career-ending decisions taken by Liz Truss, Theresa May, Tony Blair, and many more. Let us know in the comments what YOU think of the current government.
Check out these other brilliantly British videos from WMUK:
10 Times Liz Truss PISSED OFF Everyone - • 10 Times Liz Truss PIS...
The 10 Most Controversial Prime Ministers - • The 10 Most Controvers...
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WatchMojoUK is your source for British Top 10s, covering popular shows like Doctor Who, Strictly Come Dancing, Great British Bake Off, Coronation Street, This Morning, Good Morning Britain, The Graham Norton Show, Sherlock, and more! We also cover the latest in British Movies, Music and Pop Culture - We Top 10 it all!
#UTurn #flipflop #BritishPolitics #UKPolitics #Westminster

[@WatchMojoUK]

Check out the Top 10 Times Liz Truss Pissed Off Everyone!: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qXyQdqSaob6epdk

[@RebeccaJayne5x5]

😊

[@80schick1967]

Bedroom Tax is my worst. Didn't affect me, but I thought it was spiteful and ineffective 😔

[@michaelhaddock8636]

..but it didn't result in a U-turn did it?

[@Nemo_Point]

Hi, so-called " Bedroom Tax" was not adopted during Heath's premiership, though. (I disagree it was spiteful - politicians don't really do that in democracies; they lose votes) but, you're right, it was extraordinarily ineffective.

[@jackparry7719]

You could make one just for 2022

[@andyt8216]

I remember Ted Heath… he’s responsible for messing around with historical UK counties, of which I think only Liverpool like their Merseyside as opposed to being in historic Lancashire. Thanks to him, I was born in “Humberside” 🤮 and we had to wait until 1996 to get the East Riding of Yorkshire back, and even now the awful H word continues in the name of the police, fire and local BBC radio.

[@Nemo_Point]

Hi, I rather share your nostalga for the old counties' system - well, nostalga in my case, yearning in yours. As a child, I knew every county in the UK, then bang they all changed to some degree and many were bad decisions (Avon, Humberside, Hereford & Worcester, loss of Rutland, etc - many of these have been corrected - and that is only England!) But there is an important counter-argument. The shire system was very old and no longer fit for purpose. Problem was that many major urban areas had sprung-up and developed over the centuries which had urban needs and were ill-served by the county systems which were focused on all the rural areas not not the few urban ones. Also, many urban areas had sprawled across various county boundaries (eg Greater Manchester as it is now was in both Lancashire and Cheshire before) which made for bad decisions, ill-fitting the whole urban sprawl. So Metropolitian counties and boroughs were born, as were unitary authorities and the new Scottish and Welsh systems. For example, Derby was no longer part of Derbyshire but its own unitary authority. Derby is tiny compared to derbyshire as a whole but it has about 22% of the county's population as a whole. It (and similar) need special, independent status - ie become a unitary authority. Yes, Sir Edward could probably have stopped this but it was a major national effort to seek solutions for a local government system which had become unworkable. Research had been conducted for years - as was planning. It was not really the PM's doing; despite my nostalga, and some misgivings, I think he would have been uber-foolish to have stopped the process. Had he done so, I have little doubt it would have been re-instigated by later a goventment - maybe not that long after Heath left office in 1974. Cheerio.

[@SiVlog1989]

A (Dis)honourable mention should go to the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM). There were two U-Turns with this policy. The first suggestion that Britain should join the ERM was in 1985, when the economy was doing well. Then then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, rejected it. 5 years later, when Britain fell into recession and the pound had a high exchange rate relative to the German Currency used at the time, the Deutschemark, she reversed her decision, under pressure from cabinet colleagues. After Thatcher was replaced by John Major, who did the majority of the persuading of her to accept the Pound joining the ERM, he reaffirmed the pledge to keep Britain in the ERM, determined to not allow Britain to have inflation too high. Over the next couple of years, inflation did stay low, but with interest rates so high, there was little sign of prosperity in the economy (indeed, people were struggling to pay their debt to such an extent that they were forced to sell their houses for less than they paid for it, negative equity). As late as 14th September 1992, John Major gave a defiant speech about keeping Britain in the ERM, making the policy the heart of the entire government's credibility. However, events overtook him. Two days later, with Italy having had a run on the Lira, the Currency Markets (with traders seeing the gap between what the German economy needed and what the British economy needed) began to sell pounds at a tremendous rate. The Bank of England spent billions upon billions of pounds to keep it in the ERM, and the government ordered two interest rate increases from 10%-12% and then to 15%, with the value of the pound continuing to fall through the bottom limit of the ERM and the decision was taken to remove the Pound from the ERM. Because John Major had made the policy of remaining in the ERM at the heart of the government's credibility, the subsequent crashing of the pound out of it was a disaster from which John Major never really recovered, with the Labour Party under Tony Blair winning by a landslide in 1997

[@michaelhaddock8636]

I can't help feeling that the Community Charge (Poll Tax) should probably have made this list. The U-turn took quite a long time, but to have to completely replace a signature piece of legislation having stuck to it at the expense of a Prime Minister, riots in the streets and lasting damage to the relationship between the British government and the Scottish population was pretty humiliating. It is going back a bit, but the 1911 Parliament Act probably fits the bill as well. The (Tory dominated) House of Lords, having tried to obstruct the duel elected Liberal government from implementing its policies by rejecting its budget, were forced to accept both the budget itself (albeit having held it up for a year) and significant reductions in its power under the 1911 Act.

[@Nemo_Point]

My goodness, Michael, you know your stuff; I take my hat off to you. And... I completely agree on both counts. Cheerio.

[@JimTheRevelator]

45P eventually turned into P45

[@ciaranrowe6477]

A shocker by Tony Blair’s government was not phasing in FOM for the 2004 EU joiners. Every EU country other than us and Sweden did and it started rhetoric of people disliking FOM . Had we done this a lot of them would have gone to Germany and others as well lessening the burden on British services

[@Nemo_Point]

FOM - Freedom of Movement? Well at least the UK declined to join Shengen - the core of the EU's FOM policies - we were much better than many other EU countries.

[@cynthiabrent6479]

I know the USA has its problems but watching this episode makes me feel a little better.

[@mildlydispleased3221]

Na, the USA is much worse.

[@katebradshaw9280]

@@mildlydispleased3221 Not much, no… only a tiny little bit.

[@mildlydispleased3221]

@@katebradshaw9280 Our free healthcare system might be suffering due to funding cuts but it's better than not having free healthcare at all.

[@cynthiabrent6479]

@@mildlydispleased3221 I agree with you on that one.

[@florallyclover]

just wait for a top 10 USA politics blunders

[@jessicamilestone4026]

People DO have to sell their homes to pay for their care homes already

[@solidsnake9898]

Our country is an absolute embarrassment.

[@mattalan6618]

as an American i feel your pain

[@poke125]

Can't really disagree on that

[@Nemo_Point]

That is one of those pointless catch-all sentences. Construct a cohesive argument, so we can debate its merits.

[@solidsnake9898]

@@Nemo_Point Debating... in a KZbin comment section... really?

[@mattalan6618]

@@Nemo_Point imma go all cohesive on yo ass

[@samconybeer6456]

General election now

[@Nemo_Point]

Arguments?

[@samconybeer6456]

@@Nemo_Point the last 12 years of Tory rule?

[@samconybeer6456]

I’ll do you one better. The last year of Tory rule.

[@robinhess9570]

NO !!

[@Nemo_Point]

@@samconybeer6456 Sorry, Sam. I missed this. But I could simply counter by saying I think the Tories ruled very well/quite well (depending on the date and issue) during their time in office (at least until PM Truss). Neither of us has made arguments; we have both made simple, unsupported assertions. By the way, it was not a Conservative Government per se between 2010-2015; it was a Conservative-led Conservative/LibDerm coalition. Cheers.

[@SShogun872Shogun]

The only topics that matter to humanity now and the ONLY questions to politicians. • What is your policy on human trafficking? • What is your policy on pedophilia? • What is your policy on freemasonry? • What is your policy on investing and developing free energy? • What is your foreign policy regarding peace? • What is your policy for making illegal the state surveillance system in any and all its forms? • What is your monetary policy? • What is your policy on Central Banks? • What is your tax policy in numbers? • What is your policy regarding overhauling the entire body of laws to make it entirely compliant to Common Law?

[@Nemo_Point]

I think you might need a lot more work on those before they are able to be useful contributions. We all have wish-lists and - whilst many items on yors are understandable - it is merely a list. How about becomming involved in politics, so you can actually try to help implement some? Cheerio.

[@SShogun872Shogun]

@@Nemo_Point I couldn't sit down with people like Sunak or Starmer. People betraying the human race for personal interest while serving an agenda against all of us cannot be part of any discussion or be excused and be involved in civil exchange. These people need to be prosecuted, trialed and if found guilty justice be served. My list represent an attempt to make people realise how far mainstream narrative is from what really matters and therefore let them draw the necessary conclusions from what is really taking place in the world beyond the PROPAGANDA - if they care. But thank you for your reply, it is truly appreciated!

[@Nemo_Point]

@@SShogun872Shogun Hi, thanks for your reply. I think we'll have to agree to disagree. If you recall, it was Churchill who said "jaw jae" not "war war." Politics is all about sitting down in discussion opposit those with whom we disagree. After all, there is not so much to discuss when we are in agreement. If, in a democracy, we want to achieve things, we must negotiate with other who do not share our approaches. You have cited the two leaders of the UK's two largest parties. If you cannot talk with them, then you either cannot advance your agenda, else you would have to do it with violence to undermine democracy - and I doubt that is the outcome you would wish. I know when we are young and full of passion, we want to achieve despite thosed with whom we disagree or hold in contempt. That is both laudable and natural. However, much more really is achieved over time by those who engage in the political process than those who shun it. You seem to have a passion. Sociaty needs people with passion but not just to protest; it needs them to become involved and work for change. You'll never have all you wish for but neither will anyone else and you could become a genuine force for good. Take care; good to "meet" you. Cheerio.

[@SShogun872Shogun]

@@Nemo_Point Dear friend, Churchill was part of the Spencer family, which is linked to the house of Orange in Netherlands, I invite you to do your own research on them both and see what they are really up to behind closed doors. Those things call for capital punishment, not dialogue and that, in various shades, applies to most members of parliament, past and present. You do come across as an extremely decent and intelligent person and I say this with the utmost respect towards you: you are just repeating the mainstream narrative propagated by the current dominant propaganda machine. Things are not what they seem! By the way Sunak is WEF member and Starmer is trilateral commission member. That speaks volumes for anyone that knows his stuff. Happy research my fellow human.

[@Nemo_Point]

Hi. I'm afraid you completely misrepresent the 1970-74 Conservative Government's (ie Heath's) decision to support Rolls-Royce. People who did not live through those times will be completely misled by what you said here. By way of "disclaimer" I'll just say I despise Heath; he was a terrible PM BUT his decision to nationalise RR was correct. Why? Rolls-Royce (the aero-enging and luxury car-making firm) went bankrupt because of poor decisions and, in particular, it over-stretched itself in developing the RB2-11 jet engine for a new generation of passenger aeroplanes. This was in fierce competition with the USA's General Electric and Pratt & Witney firms. So RR was a major British firm and the only one even nearly holding its own against the vast resources of American firms. Plus, it employed many thousands of people and almost the entire economy of the City of Derby (then a big town) depended upon it. Reason to stop the firm completely collapsing one might think. However, that was not why Heath nationalised it. The real reason the Governemnt could not allow its complete collapse was that it was a major supplier of the Ministry of Defence. Many RAF and RN aeroplanes had RR engines fitted and those in the pipeline were being made with RR engines planned. Also, RR, via its subsiduary, RR-ND, made (and still makes) the UK nuclear reactors for all our submarines - hunter-killer; cruise-missle platforms and the ones which carry the UK's nuclear weapons. That is why the Government, under Heath nationalised RR: UK national security depended (and still depends) on the firm. It was and is absolutly critical to the nation. It should be noted this was not simply a free hand-out: after some years, RR was sold-off and that revenue paid to the Government. All previous shareholders lost their money and parts of the business, most notably the division manufacturing luxury cars, with which the firm originally made its name, was sold-off - and, to this day, RR Cars is not connected to RR Aerospace (as it is now known) - though both use similar branding.

[@TheBritishBarman]

Nice one Mate. I was hoping that somebody would mention the reason why Rolls Royce was nationalised. The L-1011 and the Americans were somewhat to blame for the bankruptcy of the company.

[@Nemo_Point]

​@@TheBritishBarman Hi GACB. Thanks very much. Cheers.

[@florallyclover]

thank you for letting us know, this was very informative

[@Nemo_Point]

@@florallyclover You're most welcome.

[@ExpoAviation]

I'm glad you pointed this out (and look at RR's continued success with the Trent engine, itself a derivative of the RB211), still, why let the truth get in the way of a good mojo compilation :/

[@bazzer124]

I am not one to think of polls as much more than subjective assessments of any give situation but it seems to me, from this video, that the British gov't just dives off the cliff into an inch of water rather than do any research as to the depth of the pool. And, just as here in the states, politicians tend to do whatever the hell they want despite a majority of their constituents being opposed to those actions. As Mark Twain said, "All Congresses and Parliaments have a kindly feeling for idiots, and a compassion for them, on account of personal experience and heredity." Cheers....

[@geoffdean2372]

Brexit should be number 1

[@Nemo_Point]

We disagree :)

[@olinorbury1855]

Selling all our gold reserves and going to Iraq should be on here. But otherwise good list

[@paulhevan322]

You'd be watching forever if all the things that we know about and all the stuff that most people don't know about.🤫

[@ExpoAviation]

True but they weren't U-Turns were they? I'm not sure.

[@Nemo_Point]

UI agree with Expo - however bad they were, they were not U-Turns.

[@nickwilliams9887]

Just an idea…… it’s always labour and conservative that cause problems…….. why not try a different party in no.10 for a change? After all, what have we got to lose ??🤔

[@froggiewrench1]

A firebreak lockdown? No Christmas bubbles? To think that many actually went along with this crap.

[@eloisemturner2289]

I will never forgive them for 2020

[@froggiewrench1]

Nor me. Bastards. All a big froth and nonsense, Eloise.

[@Nemo_Point]

Too imprecise.

[@eloisemturner2289]

For everything

[@willhovell9019]

The nationalisation saved RR Aeroengineering

[@georgeknox1822]

Just a few reasons why I can’t stand politicians

[@williamwigmore1968]

Where is the IMF crisis

[@truediva18]

Hearing these students complain about $9000 for college tuition while I paid that for one semester during my undergrad program. I sit in the US with over 100k in student loan debt. They are lucky that they have tuitions covered.

[@davidhoward4715]

This is the classic argument for evil... it could be worse.

[@MerlynMusicman]

Eh, maybe. Maybe you're just unlucky to have been charged so much...

[@Nemo_Point]

I am nor criticising the students at all. But I do agree, it is very easy for us all to complain. We need to construct proper arguments, then become involved in politics to make any difference. Sorry for your situation; good luck. (Do remember, though that US pay is about twice that as in the UK).

[@quintuscrinis]

@davidhoward4715 completely agree that this is an awful argument that defends bad policies. However the 2011 tuition fee changes actually made the situation better for students. What really matters is the repayment threshold which rose from £15,000 to £21,000. The overall loan was higher but only the very richest would be hit with it with most graduates actually paying £600 less per year, if they paid anything at all. For myself, I could have taken a gap year and the new system paying nothing at the moment. Instead I missed the chance of a gap year and have to pay £270 a year that could be going on my heating bills or into savings for a deposit on a house.

[@angratessio]

Ah yes the old “I had it harder than u so ur problems mean nothing”, classic middle agers doing what they do best

[@ChallengerTheo]

You could just put anything that Liz Truss said and get an hour long video

[@Nemo_Point]

:) But her spending bonanza, based upon massive loans (£43 billion) and her (and Chancellor KK's) fiscal policy, which completely opposed the Bank of England's monetary policy, would be quite enough... I was going to say for any Shakespearian tragedy but no. The essence of such tragedies is that the protagonist realises the error of their ways but too late (eg Hamlet). I do not think LT & KK have yet realised theirs, save it cost them power. Cheerio.

[@fishpop]

Thumbnail woman is Pogging and i hate it...

[@AtheistOrphan]

When the going gets tough, the Truss gets going!

[@quintuscrinis]

Tuition fees is an interesting one, the changes were presented badly sure but most people ended up paying less under the new scheme.

[@Beansontoast93911]

Asking what people thinks is obviously you guys trying to make people bicker in the comments about politics which will help your algorithm Which is pretty scummy

[@davidfoster8318]

Asking people to post in the comments is in every single WatchMojo video.

[@Nemo_Point]

What is wrong with political discource - which is here very good for the most part. Think of the alternatives to democracy; the places in this world where people are not allowed to debate politics.

[@Beansontoast93911]

@@Nemo_Point I don’t know if you are breathing oxygen in the UK at this current moment in time, but that is already happening here. Any debate has been put against the government always has the same scripted answer. that is not a debate. My point is that this channel is trying to make everyone argue with each other and they consistently do it. They don’t care about quality videos because they still have intros and Outros with somebody else’s voice who hasn’t even been on this channel for at least a year.

[@Beansontoast93911]

@@Nemo_Point and by me responding to that has sort of proved my point, because now I’m arguing with you

[@MikeStand11]

I feel bad saying this, but I can't enjoy listening to this guy's inability to pronounce the letter R. Wolls Woyce.

[@Nemo_Point]

They should ask Jonathan Woss to present. OK, just a joke, none of us is anywhere near perfect.

[@bradley4706]

It’s sad this channel has been commenting on politics so much. I wish it would just discuss other things.

[@bradley4706]

Well not discuss 😀, just different subjects.

[@WatchMojoUK]

@@bradley4706 Any suggestions? We're eager to try different things

[@bradley4706]

@@WatchMojoUK unfortunately you’ve been doing it for so long now I’m sure you’ll start to run out of things to do it. I just hate how anything I watch or do nowadays has politics involved. Sorry that isn’t very constructive for you. Just my opinion.

[@esthertyndall9356]

Hi

[@Nemo_Point]

Hello Ester.

[@Twiggymaster666]

I’m still waiting for my free laptop by Labour

[@Nemo_Point]

LOL

[@johncook802]

And a free owl!

[@barryosullivan1486]

Brexit. Is that embarrassing or just stupid?

[@davidhoward4715]

I think it's both.

[@Nemo_Point]

I am very strongly pro-Brexit (not that anything is perfect) but too knackered to argue now. If I see your arguments posted here to me, I'll try to respond. Cheers.

[@elizabethyardley163]

Shit

[@samconybeer6456]

General election now

[@alancrisp1582]

Really?. And you believe that will make any difference!. They are all just the same, unless. Only there to try and steal your hard earned money 💵, and waste it!.......

[@samconybeer6456]

@@alancrisp1582 no change can come from political apathy

[@robinhess9570]

NO !!

[@samconybeer6456]

@@robinhess9570 very creative Robin go cry over immigration or whatever it is you people do