At the same time, however, their sense of utility in such matters was not crass or tactless.

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More damaging still are reports of tactless comments by Chris Gent, Vodafone's boss, over the Christmas break.

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So who is tactless and without diplomatic sensitivity, the British or us?

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Sarkozy being Sarkozy, the message came out all wrong and tactless - but the direction of his thought was sound: that the old cosy contacts with France were holding Africa back.

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Yet tactless Steinbrueck has a reason for his rhetoric.

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But others appear to share the tactless diplomat's views.

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It was an honest enough question, but I realised as soon as he began to answer that it was a tactless one, because it implied what he and his fellow astronauts were doing was pointless.

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It feels a bit tactless.

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It seemed a little tactless.

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He later backtracked, but his tactless remarks - and his even more tactless conduct in dozing off during part of the ceremony - recalled another occasion a decade ago when he appeared to praise Mussolini by claiming that the Fascist dictator had "never killed anybody".

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