The practical side would be relatively simple as the different parts are pretty much in place, and such a change would probably cause less expense or upheaval than present plans, particularly if contracted out to one of the UK's successful accounting companies.

But ownership must be matched by a sea change towards all who pay their way. This means an end to the war on the middle earners, including the penalties meted out through the benefit system to tax- and NIC payers. The plan to end child benefit for those who earn more than £44,000 (take-home pay, £32,270 per annum) has been rightly criticised. The Coalition would do well to pause, for removing the benefit compounds the injury done to earning families who lost the child tax allowance on earnings in the 1970s, as it was to pay for a more generous child benefit. But the problem spreads far deeper. Any single-earner family with two children that earns up to £26,400 will be less well-off on earnings than a family led by a non-earner on a jobseeker's allowance with two or three children and housing benefit for a three-bedroom house (and that is without any of the add-ons). 

If the Coalition is to succeed in returning probity to the benefit system, it should see the benefit battle, not in terms of sticks or carrots or fine-tuning a system aimed at special cases. Rather, it should seize the chance to restore the true concept of fairness: where benefit is linked to contribution made over working life and where the entitlement is honoured, whatever the income of contributor. This will mean a seismic change to both the tax and the benefits system so that society, whether it's Big or small, will take the long view of paying its way, over a lifetime's earnings.