But if you think your office is a tough place to operate, spare a thought for the Yuletide task of one prominent English Premier League football manager.

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The Culture Committee is certainly an interesting place to serve, but spare a thought for the Transport Committee, where the departure of Paul Maynard and Julian Sturdy creates two vacancies at a time when the committee is pondering the red-hot issue of airport capacity in the south-east.

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Spare a thought too for the people hoping to become Wales' four MEPs next year.

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And, so often forgotten when we come together to mourn the end of a video game, let us also spare a thought for the hard-working employees of BioWare, who waved their beautiful creation out into the world a mere month ago, only to see it hit repeatedly with Internet hammers.

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But spare a thought for Alan Greenspan, the Fed's chairman, who actually has to take the decisions.

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