After David Cameron went public declaring the gap between the parties to be unbridgeable.

BBC: How the leaders reached Leveson deal

Yet even a top team may find the gap between the biggest private banks and the global giants is unbridgeable.

ECONOMIST: Swiss private banks

In practice, the Palestinians complain that the gaps between the two sides are so wide that they are unbridgeable without American intervention.

ECONOMIST: Palestinians on the shelf

There can be a vast and often unbridgeable difference between the qualities of a successful CEO and those of an equally successful chief operating officer.

FORBES: The Risks Of CEO Succession

Yet there was an unbridgeable gap between IBM and China's behemoths.

ECONOMIST: Privatisation in China

Yet the strikes do not reflect an unbridgeable divide between capital and labour: rather, nearly all South Koreans are capitalists, and many of the strikers had voted for Mr Lee.

ECONOMIST: What Lee Myung-bak still needs to do

Yet the differences are real enough and seemingly unbridgeable.

BBC: Deepening military rift between the US and Pakistan

The north-south split is now probably unbridgeable.

ECONOMIST: Sudan loses its chains

The chasm seems unbridgeable.

FORBES: What We Can Learn About Negotiating From the Great Compromiser