The UK-wide welfare state should act as a minimum level of protection that we can top-up from our own resources if that's what Scots want".
But for true believers, the journey will not be complete until there is a Europe-wide welfare state, featuring harmonised taxes and common social legislation.
Legal aid's place within the wider welfare state is overlooked in the bill.
However, certain features of an innovation process and market lead to wider welfare improvement windows, such as stronger spillovers and moderately costly R&D.
The payments will have no effect on entitlement to other benefits, as they currently do, with ongoing support provided through the wider welfare state".
Child benefit payments for all higher-rate taxpayers will be stopped to pay for wider welfare reform and to show that "we are all in this together", George Osborne said today.
For the shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, binding higher rate taxpayers into the state, even at a cost of more than £2bn, is a price worth paying if it wins their continued support for the wider welfare system.
As a result, both governments could propose short-term reductions in pensions, unemployment benefit, wider welfare benefits and public sector wages as part of the package and get grudging acceptance.
A Downing Street spokesman denied that the work and pensions secretary was "squeamish" over the scale of cuts, and claimed the cabinet was united in wanting them to form part of wider welfare reform.
"On top of the ageing population – which is increasing faster in Scotland than the rest of the UK – the Scottish government are committing to spending even more on wider welfare without saying how they'll pay for it".
They are also linked to wider welfare reform the subject of an announcement made as The Economist went to press because the more people that can start to pay their way, the less reliant they will be on the state for help with housing costs.
