Following on from that though, Johnson seems to be playing the same trick again. The proposed NI rise to pay for social care and to overcome the NHS backlog is being used, rather than income tax (or, as some of us prefer, inheritance tax) because people have a perception that there is a link between NI charges and NHS funding. But any ringfencing was abandoned years ago: NI is better thought of as a very specific income tax on the employed under 60.

The false association of NI charges and NHS funding makes the increase more palatable than a rise in income tax. But it is spin, that's all, just like the bus.