It drew fire from those, like the Rowntree Trust, who reckoned it replaced a commitment to a shared future with a mutual accommodation between two sides happy to keep their distance.

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He said that the purpose for using tear gas in Bahrain is to keep the protesters at a distance and added "the police do not purposefully hit people with it".

BBC: Bahraini dies after being struck by tear gas canister

According to the New York Times and a subsequent story in the Washington Post, that's why McCain advisor John Weaver met with Iseman in 1999 and urged her to keep her to keep her distance.

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Officials tried to stain the marbles brown again, put up a railing (which still survives) to keep the public at a decent distance, and held an internal inquiry designed to place blame on lowly members of staff with drinking problems.

ECONOMIST: Scraping the marbles