Having had time to digest last week’s budget I fear the public may be being deceived.

There is no such thing as the National Insurance Fund. Gordon Brown abolished it in the 1997 budget and all National Insurance contributions now go into the general taxation pot.

In effect National Insurance contributions are an extra rate of basic income tax paid by workers only - pensioners are exempt.

Jeremy Hunt has now made two cuts bringing the rate down to eight per cent and says he has ambitions to abolish it altogether. This is under the guise of putting more cash in working people’s pockets.

However, bearing in mind the overall picture, this means falling taxation at a time when the state pension is rising in line with the triple lock (a vote winner from pensioners) and we have crumbling public buildings (schools, hospitals etc.,) crumbling public transport (rail and road), a failing cash-strapped NHS - the list goes on.

Once National Insurance is gone any future tax rises will have to be through basic rate tax and will also be paid by pensioners.

I suspect this budget marks the beginning of the end for the welfare state. We are going back towards the days when the rich ruled and the rest of us were peasants. This has to be stopped whilst we are still able to do so.

The last ‘peasants revolt’ took place in 1831. The next one may be just around the corner.

Tony Taylor, Grassholme, Woodthorpe, York