The most notable example was a humiliating backdown over petrol tax in the summer of 2000.

ECONOMIST: Tony Blair sounds greener abroad than he looks at home

Although the Security Council is expected to reject Iraq's demands for a moratorium on inspections there are still likely to be divisions over how to make Iraq backdown.

BBC: Despatches

But the company's backdown also raises another possibility: that, battered by its rising unpopularity and nervous about hostile legislation, the managed-care industry is fast retreating from the task it was put into place to perform: to control health-care costs.

ECONOMIST: HMOs