Wade on abortion, decided in 1973, which came as a bolt from the blue.

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But some say that it is absurd to depict the law lords' judgment as a bolt from the blue.

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"It was becoming a big issue just the fact that something could hit you like a bolt from the blue in India, " Mr. Shroff said.

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The success of the Matthew 25 PAC would mark a sea change in the electoral landscape, unprecedented but not a bolt from the blue.

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As the world reeled with the news that Pope Benedict XVI was to resign, another bolt from the blue was to hit the Vatican within hours.

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Pete Gardner, the chief executive of the British Athletes Commission, says he is "very concerned at the proposals, which have come as a bolt from the blue".

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The president of Board for Control of Cricket in India N Srinivasan told reporters that he was "shocked" by the developments which he described as "a bolt from the blue".

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It was a bolt from the blue.

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If, at the time of the Cuban missile crisis, for example, which you and I remember because we were around, it had all gone wrong and the Russians had put a bolt from the blue on London and Mr MacMillan was killed, the decision whether to launch the B-force, the B-bombers with their hydrogen bombs, would have gone to the Chief of Bomber Command, an airman in uniform.

BBC