Ian Duncan Smith could do with a lesson in festive spirit

The Work and Pensions Secretary is the man charged with drawing up yet more cuts to the welfare budget.

Marley was dead, to begin with.

It’s the first line of A Christmas Carol, the classic festive read with its message of embracing charity and renouncing meanness of spirit and wallet.

Charles Dickens wrote it in 1843. Quite possibly Norfolk MP Keith Simpson bought a copy then. With his moustache and little round glasses, he certainly looks like he’s stepped straight out of history.

At this time of year he compiles a list of mainly history books to recommend to his fellow Tory MPs.

He’s also the man who amused himself by making a lion noise and pawing the air when colleague Cheryl Gillan asked a question in the Commons wearing a leopard-print top.

Christmas must be a barrel of laughs round Keith’s gaff.

Unfortunately he did not recommend A Christmas Carol for Iain Duncan Smith. The Work and Pensions Secretary could do with a lesson in festive spirit.

Though it should be pointed out that largesse is not beyond Duncan Smith. He’s squandered tens of millions on his flagship Universal Credit scheme to simplify the benefits system, which has become increasingly complex.

But at this time of generosity and goodwill to all men, the Government is increasingly talking about welfare cuts.

Welfare, or social security as Labour have decided to call it presumably at the behest of a focus group, is sure to become one of the big issues of the 2015 general election. Expect both sides to prepare the ground in 2014.

The Chancellor, regaining his reputation as the brains of the Downing Street operation while the economy begins to recover, recently told the Treasury Select Committee straight out that he plans to slash the welfare budget further.

Some think the Tories have yet to shed their “nasty party” image. George Osborne doesn’t seem to want to.

The man charged with drawing up budget cuts will be right-wing former leader Iain Duncan Smith.

John Major, who seems to be regaining a taste for politics he was back in parliament again last week talking foreign policy with a House of Lords committee, is the ghost of Christmas past for IDS. When he was a backbencher in the 1990s Duncan Smith tormented the then PM with his anti-EU rebellion. Now the boot’s on the other foot and Major rarely lets slip an opportunity to drop hints he thinks the Work and Pensions Secretary is a bit thick.

Duncan Smith has had a Scrooge-like change of heart before. His so-called Easterhouse Epiphany saw him, allegedly, weep in the face of poverty he hitherto had not had to confront. He went on to say that everyone should have enough money to live on.

But once he got into power he introduced a one-size-fits-all benefit cap popular and sensible but critics claim it contradicts his previous statement. It’s the popularity that matters though.

The ghost of Christmas future election organiser Lynton Crosby, entirely focused on the 2015 election has spotted that cracking down on social security plays well with the punters. Especially the ones that get the feeling their taxes are squandered on luxuries like cigarettes and satellite telly.

And so Duncan Smith is talking about cutting a few thousand pounds from the cap of £26,000, the level of average earnings, to match the figure for post-tax earnings nearer £21,500.

He knows Labour will baulk and allow him to portray them as a party of scroungers. Trouble is, his Lib Dem partners will also object to the plan.

Such changes will depend on a majority Tory government in 2015.

So as he ponders cuts in spending neither proposed nor seen since the days of the Thatcher government, eight months after her passing, Iain Duncan Scrooge may settle down in anticipation of a restless night this Christmas Eve with a spot of reading that begins: “Margaret was dead, to begin with.”