title: Employers toe the line.
abstract: It is no wonder that staff unions are unhappy about NHS Employers' evidence to the nurses' pay review body this year. There are many reasons why a rise of 2 per cent from next April would be inadequate. For a start, 2 per cent is still only a government inflation target; the latest Consumer Price Index of annual inflation rose to 2.5 per cent in August, up from 2.4 per cent in July, so ministers cannot even claim that prices are moving in the right direction.