U-turns: is this the most indecisive government ever? Help us crowdsource the ultimate index

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2013/feb/07/u-turn-index-government

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Is David Cameron's government the most u-turney ever?

The government backed away from plans to scrap GCSEs today. And, as Andrew Sparrow writes today

In political reporting the word "U-turn" attracts the word "humiliating" like a magnet

A reputation for these can be toxic, too: the Conservatives constantly accused Gordon Brown of u-turning before the 2010 election, which Brown lost, as this search of Conservatives.com shows.

But how to compare different prime ministers? The first thing is getting a list of u-turns together, which is not as easy as it sounds. Although Paul Owen has been compiling the ultimate list of the Coalition's changes in policy, getting a comparative dataset for previous administrations is not simple. It is not, after all, what governments want to be remembered for.

We have access to more than Google at the Guardian, including a comprehensive archive of press reports going back to the beginning of the Guardian's first publication, but how do you find them?

The phrase "u-turn" is forever associated with Margaret Thatcher - her famous line from the Conservative party conference of 1980 has shaped how we see political commitments:

To those waiting with bated breath for that favourite media catchphrase, the 'U-turn', I have only one thing to say: "You turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning."

And Tony Blair famously echoed that by saying he had "not got a reverse gear".

But searching the archives just for "u-turns" misses "climbdowns", "flip-flops" (which is admittedly more popular in the US) and "volte-face". So getting them together is a mixture of finding repeated references to policy turnarounds, and dumb luck.

And while some policy u-turns stick in the memory, such as Gordon Brown and the 10p tax rate, others are in the news only when they happen, disappearing only to leave a dent in the party's reputation without anyone really recalling exactly what it was that caused all the fuss.

So, we've compiled what we think is a pretty good list of u-turns for the last three administrations: Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron. This doesn't include John Major, who has a rep now for u-turns - and we would love to know whether that was based in fact or was it more a reputation unfairly gained? And it's possible that some of Tony Blair's have disappeared in time so we may be underestimating his.

In terms of raw numbers, David Cameron is in the lead, with 35 we have recorded so far.

But obviously each of those three prime ministers were in power for different lengths of time. Cameron has ruled for 1,003 days as of today - not far off Gordon Brown's 1,049 days but still a long way to go from Tony Blair's 3,708.

So, what if we compared the number of climbdowns to days in power? It looks like this. On average:

• There is a climbdown every 29 days under the Coalition • There was a u-turn every 52 days under Gordon Brown • Tony Blair u-turned every 412 days

It's a little unfair as today is unlikely to be David Cameron's last day in power - and if there are no more climbdowns for the life of this government , his position will improve markedly, but it gives you an idea of what we shall name the Datablog U-turn index.

But we're bound to have missed stuff. What else did Tony Blair back down on - and how about John Major and Margaret Thatcher? Can you help us?

Fill in the Google Form below and we will update and improve this index as time goes on. We want to create the ultimate u-turns database. And we need your help.

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