There are lies, damned lies, and statements to the House of Commons by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. That point was exemplified by the present Chancellor, George Osborne, this week, who met a torrent of criticism of his Budget presented only a week ago with a torrent of figures to prove he was on the side of the angels. Gordon Brown, when he was Labour’s Chancellor, regularly did the same. But political number-crunchers rarely win arguments that way, and what really counts in the public mind is a commitment to the welfare of all of society, especially the most vulnerable. That commitment on the Government’s part is on trial.

The new Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Stephen Crabb, admitted in Parliament that ministers have sometimes lost sight of the fact that behind every statistic is a real human being. It was a good beginning as he took over the reins following the resignation of his predecessor, Iain Duncan Smith, who has emerged as the foremost of Mr Osborne’s critics.