Cutting edge: Chopping £12bn off welfare won’t be easy – and is likely to widen the already yawning divide in our society

Parties have a tradition of vowing to slash spending on bureaucracy and benefits in election campaigns before quietly sheathing their swords once the heat of battle is behind them. It is a tradition that our would-be Iron Chancellor, George Osborne, seems determined not to follow. Having signed up the sometimes prickly Work and Pensions Secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, Mr Osborne has made it clear that the plan to cut another £12bn from welfare is going ahead, in order to restore what the two of them call “sanity” in the budget and “ensure the welfare system promotes work”.