My friends say I have a one-track mind. I’m always thinking about a three-letter word ending in X. … TAX.

It seems I’m not the only one. For yesterday in the House of Commons MP Ben Gummer stated a fact that has always irritated me. His bone of contention was National Insurance. For non-Brits I should explain that British subjects who earn more that £149 per week has to pay 12 per cent or more of their earnings on a so-called contributions based scheme that supposedly pays for various sickness and unemployment benefits and pensions. Gummer says it is a stealth tax masquerading as a social good.

National Insurance is a sanctimonious euphemism, it is a tax mechanism for redistributing wealth. The state should come clean and admit that it is nothing less than an ‘Additional Income Tax’.

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