The laddie is for turning

In opposition, one of David Cameron’s strengths was the speed at which he dumped bad ideas. But, now, he is starting to acquire a habit for U-Turns – especially those called for by minor celebs. We’ve seen Scottish school milk, NHS Direct, BookStart, school sport – and soon, I suspect, forests, World Service cuts and (the biggie) NHS reform. A depressing pattern is emerging: anyone with a decent two-day campaign and a splattering of celebrities can probably force a concession out of the government. I make this case in my News of the World column (£) today. Here is a summary of my main argument.

1. Cameron seems to be pioneering the Celeb-induced U-Turn. With BookStart we had Philip Pullman (“an unforgivable disgrace”) and Andrew Motion (“an act of gross cultural vandalism”). On School Sport we had Denise Lewis, the javelin-thrower Tessa Sanderson and the track cyclist Jason Queally. Word gets around, so everyone has piled in on forests – from Judi Dench to the Archbishop of Canterbury.