Earlier this week, negotiations on a space for the wine store fell apart at the very last minute.

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They have a tremendous amount of power, because they can insert things at the very last minute, a la the bridge in Alaska that gets on everybody's nerves.

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In the Commons, Work and Pensions Minister Chris Grayling said that idea was "ill-thought out" and "would be more credible if it was not being made at the very last minute".

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He competed in the 400 meters and on South Africa's 4x400 relay team at the London Games, making history after having his selection confirmed on South Africa's team at the very last minute.

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We used to have lots of consultative committees but they were the great and the good who were put on the committees and then at the very last minute without much of a chance of seeing it in advance party members might get a chance to say yea or nay.

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At the same time, at the last minute -- they obviously have tunnel vision, it's a very, very stressful situation -- one of them yells out, 'Look out!'

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McKelvey says the growth is not just related to the changed world after the Sept. 11 attacks, but to companies looking in general for different ways of doing business at a time when air fares, especially those purchased at the last minute as business travelers must often do, remain very high.

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So my question is: What is being done at the moment to prevent the kind of nail-biting that we saw last week with the very last-minute deal being brokered on the debt ceiling, given the magnitude, as you described it, of not raising it?

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