In truth, the Tories had entered a pattern of decline from a high point in the 1950s, with sporadic mini-revivals - although successive peaks mostly tended to be lower than the last.
The figure in the 1991 census showed a slight growth in the number of speakers compared with 1981, reversing a pattern of decline which had existed through most of the 20th Century.
The only thing that is bothering me is the puzzle of the pattern of their decline.
The result, if medicine is not taken, is a pattern of economic decline.
It then formed a big wedge, broke down in April, went flat in the May-July period, and then had an ugly 3-day decline out of the base pattern in August.
The pattern of swift, uninterrupted decline is now taken as the norm: the UN uses it to project a worldwide convergence towards the replacement rate of fertility (2.1, the rate at which a population stabilises in the long term).
The seasonal pattern is for the euro to decline in January, and technically it looks quite weak.
Last quarter, China's economy grew at a pace of 7.9%, slightly better than analyst expectations and breaking a pattern of seven straight quarters of decline.
CNN: China's economy grows 7.8% for 2012, better than expected
This is likely a continuation pattern, which favors a further decline.
That steady decline, Flynn said, did not resemble the usual pattern of genetic influence.
Each attempt at a rally has petered out at a level below previous peaks, and with Thursday's nearly six-point decline in the index, it has now added a pattern of lower lows to its bearish repertoire.
In other words, say the union-bashers, if there is a pattern, it is chiefly one of continued union decline.
The trouble, in a nutshell, is that everyone already knows about the pattern and either tries to preempt it by selling sooner or use it to buy into the decline.
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