Compassionate, caring, green: this is how David Cameron presented himself before the election. Once in Downing Street, he threw off his disguise. The laid-back old-school Tory emerged as the leader of a party on a break-neck mission to fulfil Margaret Thatcher’s vision.

Polly Toynbee and David Walker, previously sharp dissectors of the Blair and Brown record, report that despite confusion and economic failure the Tories core commitment is unchanged. Looking in detail at the government’s policies during their first two years in power, Toynbee and Walker warn in this lively analysis that by the next election the welfare state may be in irrecoverable ruins – unless the Tory mission to downsize and diminish the publish realm is brought down first by Cameron’s incompetence.