Green (they are not) and White (they are not) papers are both discussion papers, but the White papers are more advanced, and tend to ask for agreement rather than comments.
Yes "thinking" and "consulting" are both ways of practising good government, but "U turns" are only taken when neither has preceded the knee jerk reaction taken by the politician.
Where I live in Scotland, parent-power and democracy has just stopped a train of primary school closures after seven months of arguing. Yay for democracy! Oh, and the council administration did a U-turn in effect but they will call it something else. Who cares? There are a lot of very tired but very happy parents in Scotland today.
Just to add to the colourful confusion, I think a green paper is the blueprint for discussion and the white paper is for voting. Perhaps it would be better if MPs and ministers in particular gave some thought to proposed legislation before broadcasting their plans to the media and then having to rethink.
I've always wondered why the press seem so sure that U-turns are a bad thing. Surely we want our politicians to listen to a range of views and to take them into account when making decisions. I thought the idea of a white paper was that it was a blue print for discussion (sorry, seem to have got a too many colours in there!).
to expect politicians to change direction when a policy is obviously not working/not going to work? Why is there such uproar and indignation about making a U turn? Probably because the majority of politicians are male and will never ask for directions. When one sees the behaviour of MPs in the House of Commons one can understand why there are so few women amongst their ranks. All that shouting and mocking, far worse than any school playground. Then there's the false claiming of expenses - a matter that has still to be satifactorily resolved in my view.
However, I am grateful to live in a democracy, I just wish it was better behaved.