Consumers in Chennai (79.0) and New Delhi (78.7) also showed optimism with the index points being in a stable range.

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The Tories will have gambled that, more than anything, voters want straight talking from those who would govern them, and with a stable lead over Labour of ten points or more, they can afford to risk being a little less popular.

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Sergio Haddad of Educative Action, a charity, also points to the lack of a stable career path.

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Keefe points out that government jobs tend to be more stable, and this almost certainly explains a large part of the gap.

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Dividends are stable over time, so this ratio lets us compare stock prices at different points in time.

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In particular, as William Amos, one of Ms Acevedo-Whitehouse's colleagues, points out, levels of inbreeding tend to be lower in expanding populations than in stable ones.

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