I'm John Bachelors, Joseph Sternberg, my colleague.

He's a member of the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal.

He's in London.

He writes political economics.

And now we're going to turn our attention to a non-EU member

and a headline in the London Times, UK Edition.

Starmer refuses to rule out raising employers national insurance. PM and Chancellor

Deny increase would breach manifesto pledge or how labor is relying on

semantics to justify a tax rise. Rachel Reeves may struggle to convince voters that any

rise in employers national insurance contributions does not break a

manifesto pledge and it goes on like that. Budget's two weeks away I believe and

there's already something of a civil war in

labor what was promised at the election and what is to be delivered. Joe what is

national insurance what does that translate to in America?

So national insurance here is insurance. What does that translate to in America?

So national insurance here is sort of the equivalent of the US payroll tax.

It primarily funds what they call the old age pension, which is the British equivalent of Social Security.

And it is emblematic of the pickle that the Labor Party has gotten itself into because they promised

that they were not going to increase taxes on work.

You promised they wouldn't increase income taxes, they promised that they wouldn't increase

the national insurance payroll tax, and yet, now because they've also made all of these spending commitments that they're

discovering they can't afford, they find that they need to tap dance around some of those promises.

...