Just before the coalition government was formed I remember talking to a prominent Conservative council leader who said: 'No one has managed to reduce public spending. Even Thatcher couldn't. All governments can hope for is to stop its rate of growth.'

I recalled these words when reading about Iain Duncan Smith's admission last week that his welfare reforms were unlikely to cut the welfare bill, only to halt its growth. Welfare reform is long overdue but simplifying the complex network of benefits while cutting them in a recession is not only massively difficult but is also dealing with only part of the problem and as usual is bedevilled by Whitehall's silos as well as public hypocrisy.