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Yesterday I was rechecking my registrars' banding after a slight change in their on-call patterns. I was struck by the complexity of the algorithms used to calculate this; hours worked, antisocial working, intensity, rest periods etc. At every turn, if you went slightly off track you got "sent to Jail, go directly to Jail, do not pass Go" (i.e. Band 3), rather like some cruel game. The juniors' hours and intensity seem more tightly regulated than long distance HGV drivers or commercial pilots I imagine. By contrast however the proposed consultant contract has no such safeguards. Instead there are waffle words including "should, we expect, we would hope", all depending on the benevolence of local managers. Andrew Hobart, how did you manage to get Government to accept this deal - what must be a "contract from hell" from their point of view? And why can't someone work the same logic into a new consultants' contract? Adrian Fogarty