U turns define the Brown charactor and his government

Quite a stinging attack on the PM from Steve Richards in the Independent this morning who writes that

The U-turn is the most vivid and unflattering metaphor in British politics. Leaders are fearful of any association with the image, one that suggests they are weakly, pathetically turning back from their previously declared destination.

The fact that Gordon Brown has now performed several of which the Post Office is only the latest

cast an illuminating light on a government and the prime minister at its head. Brown's U-turns are particularly revealing and in my view explain why he totters precariously, slumped in the polls and the victim already of two attempted internal coups.

and

show that Brown has never acquired a clear voice of his own as Prime Minister and has failed to break away from his complicated past.