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Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots, a spectator's daily politics podcast. I'm Katie Balls,

and I'm enjoyed by

Fraser Nelson and James Forsyfe. And as MPs get ready to return to Parliament next week, we are hearing

news of an announcement. James, this is the social care announcement. There had been the plan

before the summer recess, but then the Prime Minister found himself in self-isolation.

So what's the plan now?

So the telegraph of the Times are both reporting today, but the plan is essentially what

we had expected, which was an increase in national insurance to fund social care and work

on the NHS backlog.

As you wrote in your politics column last week, Katie, the expectation is that this will come, you know,

as soon as Parliament comes back next week, so early on.

But this is obviously, as phrases in the telegraph column today,

this is a big gamble.

This is a centre-right government saying that we are going to increase taxes

to spend more on public services.

Now, the government's argument will be twofold.

One, COVID has left this huge backlog in the NHS.

It's exceptional, and that's why they're putting up taxes to help deal with that.

And secondly, they want a lasting solution to social care.

You know, remember that Boris Johnson promised that on the steps of Downstrip

...