title: As targets become more difficult to meet, the processes employed to achieve them will become less and less 'liberal'.
abstract: The Budget is usually big news. It is a source of debate among managers, at least until the health secretary has given his version of what it means for health care. Not so this year. Despite chancellor Gordon Brown giving one of his longer speeches, the event was almost completely subsumed by the coverage of the war in Iraq. Not that Nursing Management is disinterested in the military; an interview published in this issue with the army's leading nurse testifies to the journal's interest in all aspects of nursing leadership.