In fact, this congenial chap always fancied himself as the consummate soft-hearted, social minded sort.

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Certainly not the soft-hearted internationalists who tend to be found in the offices of the European Union in Brussels.

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His most popular screen character was in the hit Munnabhai movies - light comedies where he played a brawny, bumbling soft-hearted gangster.

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Another sop to the soft-hearted 21st-century modern man is the option of using straw to pad your socks and hopefully cushion the blows.

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The trader himself, Nick Leeson, was a soft-hearted sap who started on the road to perdition to cover up a blunder by a junior colleague, and appeared to think he was dealing in cappuccino options.

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Warm-hearted but soft-headed, maybe: but better than being cold-hearted and hard-headed.

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