I crave a little self indulgence from the reader for the first half of this post since it covers an issue that stayed near the front of my mind every week for six years of my working life.

Last Friday saw several of the broadsheets rehearsing the history of the use of targets in the NHS over the last decade. They were doing so because the current Secretary of State, having spent 7 years railing against politically motivated targets, set his own last Thursday.