The reason is simple, old-fashioned economics, as old as the Luddites.

Sir Peter Gershon has been heading the government’s efficiency review.

His report, leaked to the Financial Times this week, suggested cutting civil service jobs by 80,000 to save an estimated 15 billion pounds a year.

A large bulk of those savings could come from cutting out the people who push around paper, by putting government services online.

A simple policy like this has high stakes.

It could easily undermine the Conservative Party’s plan to slash