If you have a spare hour and a half this is quite an interesting video from the Policy Exchange.  the main speaker is Professor Lawrence Mead who is creditied with being the intellectiual driving force behind the move towards conditionality in the US welfare system.

Iain Duncan Smith has jest released the coalitions blueprint(s) for the reform of the welfare state.  A simplified benefits and tax system is the headline but from the look of the options, what we might get is the benefits system that the treasury is happy with rather than IDS.

The government's approach to welfare reform was driven by Iain Duncan Smith's argument that upfront investment in welfare reform would be covered by savings made as people moved off benefits into employment.  The observor reports that that approach may have run into trouble.