services by developing plans and delivering on targets, but we often need to remember that is often a strong temptation for politicians who are facing difficult news to promise at the unachievable in terms of targets in ways that they might later regret. so we have seen this fairly recently with some gp targets and mental health targets. i think there is a real balance here where there is a real balance here where the nhs needs to know where to focus and prioritise, but at the same time, if any target that is set needs to be realistic because of the backlog. the continuing impact of covid and the fragile state of the workforce, have been under such pressure for so long. pressure for so long. doesn t the history of targets, pressure for so long. doesn t the history of targets, going - pressure for so long. doesn t the history of targets, going back - history of targets, going back 20 or 30 years, show that other areas of care are skewed to meet these