He said Mr Duncan Smith had spent "hard years turning himself into a leading and principled expert on welfare, its effects and shortcomings".

BBC: Welfare cuts unjust, say four churches

Other subjects raised by backbench MPs include government funding for Cornwall, the effects of welfare reform on disabled people, their carers and families and votes for 16 and 17-year-olds.

BBC: Week ahead

Dinakar's stories on retail and other trade-liberalization effects on the economic welfare of the nation attracted the eye of the sponsoring International Policy Network.

FORBES

You should understand the disincentive effects of massive, welfare-delivered marginal tax-rates.

ECONOMIST: Asia's security

But whatever the exact dollar amount it is, the leverage effects of ending all corporate welfare would actually be far greater.

FORBES: The Wolf and The Lamb Deficit Plan

These included guidance on the use of restraint techniques in secure settings, the effects of detention in immigration removal centres on children and delays in welfare assessments.

BBC: Vulnerable children's care fears

That underlines the point that changing the welfare system in an effort to discourage lone parenthood may have other, less desirable, effects.

ECONOMIST: The family

More money for welfare means less for investment and tax cuts, or a smaller financial cushion to soften the effects of a slowing economy.

ECONOMIST: Germany's government

But maybe more than anything, the very real side-effects of a highly productive global economy should make free-market proponents reconsider their hostility to a redistributive welfare state.

FORBES: The Post-Employee Economy