A new way of financing the Games?

The new Chancellor of the Exchequer has recently introduced a mini-budget. This included an increase in the charge for National Insurance; currently any person earning more than £34,840 a year pays a mere 1% national insurance a year - in the previous tax year this limit was £33,540. This limit has now been raised to £40,040 - and the tax rate on the differential is 11% - so the difference could cost as much as £520 in the forthcoming tax year - or 15% of the salary of a person earning £41,000 a year. The Daily Telegraph reports that, without this increase, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development this week rated Britain as one of the most heavily taxed countries in the world. More to come to pay for the Games??

I thought (and I know that successive governments, particularly the current encumbent, have proved me wrong) that the purpose of national insurance contributions (which in my youth was divivded between graduated pension and national insurance) was to pay for pensions and the national health service. Now it is just another tax, albeit a stealth tax. Again, in my youth, the costs for graduated pension and national insurance were a minimum part of deductions from pay packets; now I know from the wages that I have calculated for clients that the amounts are the equivalent to, or often more than the PAYE tax deductions...