Would people support it or would they opt for the seemingly cosier prospect of Eastenders and Emmerdale?

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But the cosier sofas returned just over a decade later when another re-launch saw the birth of BBC Breakfast in 2000.

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Mr Klaus's flinty vision of independent states, co-operating but certainly not melding, runs against Mr Havel's consensual, welfare-conscious welcome of a cosier pan-European embrace.

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He is cosier with the sort of interest groups (trade unions) that will call for protection, and is keener on using labour and environmental standards to hamper trade.

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But India's warming relations with America may get cosier.

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But in recent months a number of international airlines have started taking baby steps in the other direction, using improvements in aircraft construction to install plusher seats and cosier interiors in some of their newer planes.

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To that end, its city hall is covered in solar panels and there are plans to fit cosier insulation to local-government buildings, build four waste-to-energy plants and buy 500 hybrid diesel-electric buses by 2010.

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Softbank itself encourages an even cosier vision.

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Public confidence would also be boosted by giving consumers a clearer sense of participation in the regulatory process, so that they do not feel that such products are being foisted on them by authorities who are cosier with the industry than with shoppers.

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Instead, it would hit their arch rivals, the supermarkets, which have gradually persuaded drinkers to quaff cheap booze at home rather than expensive stuff at the bar. (Price isn't the only factor behind this change: home comforts from radiators to satellite TV have made British sitting rooms cosier places than they used to be).

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