U-turn stamps Cowen’s card

TRANSLATE the following comment of Tánaiste Brian Cowen into English:

“Over recent months the dynamics of the housing market have fundamentally changed… The conditions then (before the election) would have destabilised the market. (The Mullingar Alliance’s) so-called solution would have harmed the market. I have always said that stamp duty could only be looked at within the budgetary cycle.”

It looks tricky doesn’t it at first glance? But the translation is very simple. It can be boiled down to one phrase: “A perfectly executed 180 degree U-turn.”