But the Scottish secretary's job, which will be of doubtful value once all law-making and spending responsibility has been passed to the Scottish parliament, looks to have been made completely redundant by the new committee.
It has to be doubtful whether the people of Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy will wait that long.
One clear danger is that they may alienate customers, who will welcome better service but may be more doubtful about uses of the technology such as finely segmenting the market or targeting customers individually.
Those who doubt the UK government's case, set out on Tuesday, for building a line between London and Birmingham are going to be even more doubtful about the benefits of a colossally expensive link to help out the potential foreigners north of Gretna.
While it's doubtful 2012 will be remembered as one of rock's greatest years, it did produce outstanding recordings, some of which fit into familiar categories.
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It's the answer that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical, and fearful, and doubtful of what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.
Stretch it too far, by making promises that can't or won't be kept or by bringing in countries of doubtful military value, and the alliance will unravel.
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The argument about the format of the debates may be generating a lot of heat this week but, ironically, it is doubtful whether the debates themselves will change many votes, however they are done.
In a careful study, Anthony Cordesman, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, no friend of Israel, argued that even in the doubtful assumption that such a nuclear exchange could be contained within the region, the resulting horrors would include the deaths of tens of millions and the obliteration of whole societies.
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However, it is doubtful whether the sudden change of policy will be enough to salvage the PA's tarnished image.
At the moment, though, it seems doubtful this exercise will be held up as a model of how to empower local communities.
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It is not Dragon's Den, but it is doubtful that responsible charitable trusts or institutional investors will be committing wads of cash to a payment-by-results mentoring scheme for ex-offenders without good evidence that it can get those results.
Whether private companies will be willing to come to the rescue without firm guarantees of control seems doubtful .
One doctor who has been involved with clinical studies of both Erbitux and Avastin says there is reason to be doubtful.
An FTT on FX in the EU would be illegal and it is doubtful that anyone wants to go through the process of revising the basic treaty to change this.
She said she was doubtful about whether civil partnerships would be an election issue, despite having contacted a number of candidates.
But with some 250 bracketed pieces of text still being fought over, it seemed doubtful whether this deadline could be met.
The issue isn't whether the United States will be able to win a popularity contest in the region (this is doubtful even in the best of times), but rather, that alienating large swaths of the local population makes it much more difficult to defeat terrorism.
President-elect BARACK OBAMA: It's the answer that led those who've been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.
But correspondents say the number of other factions involved make it doubtful whether a peace deal with Rwanda alone will be decisive in ending the war.
By looking at large numbers of paintings that are universally believed to be authentic, Dr Farid hopes to be able to examine doubtful cases with confidence in the future.
The reverse whether more of Mr Brown, or indeed the SNP, will be useful to Glasgow East is more doubtful.
Whether the costs of building the new network can be met from the venture's capital budget of Dollars1 billion a year over the next five years is more doubtful.
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