sugar the pill
sweeten the pill

There are, in any case, ways of sugaring the pill.

"I was trying to sugar the pill, for the family, was all.

He's no fool, Osborne, so he sugared the pill a little.

I can only admire Byrne's honesty, but he obviously feels the need to sugar the pill for his own party.

Since the 1970s there has been a movement to bring art into hospitals, to sugar the pill, to the advantage of both patients and artists.

We have clear positions from the rapporteur which Parliament should adopt without sugaring the pill in order to achieve a positive line.

'You are one of the best field agents we ever had working out of this office,' said Frank, sugaring the pill.

No point sugaring the pill.

Not only does narrative pleasure sugar the pill of learning in all sorts of areas, it is a good in and of itself.

The regulation of rights and obligations contained in the package is no more than sugaring the pill of passenger transport deregulation.

The report acknowledges these, amongst attempts to 'sugar the pill' with the introduction of safeguards that do not change its substance.

To sugar the pill, the EU is promising us quasi-general access to the Internet and cutting-edge vocational training.

To further sugar the pill of Mattie's personal growth, Lamott bestows a love affair on her heroine.

Sugaring the Pill The NHS is paying people to be healthy.

That is how it is, however much the Committee on International Trade might want to sugar the pill with toothless safeguards which essentially do not change anything.

BBC Radio 4 Programmes Sugaring the Pill Listen now (30 minutes)

Nevertheless, Susan Kidwell and her mother had managed to sugar the pill and install a cozy atmosphere in their apartment - three rooms on the ground floor.

With the original announcement now more than eight days old, and therefore allowing for the reality to have sunk in, Miller is now making no attempt to sugar the pill.

The music didn't entirely please either the playwright or the composer, but Ibsen grudgingly acknowledged that it "sugared the pill so that the public could swallow it."

The EU Commission has tried to sugar the pill, promising legislation to ensure that no one facing criminal charges in any member country will be denied access to a lawyer.

With regard to the amendments tabled by the PPE-DE, I do not believe they improve the report, but rather that they aim to weaken it or sugar the pill.

Goldman Sachs, the investment bank which is advising TNT, will need to persuade its client to sugar the pill if it is to have a genuine chance of securing a deal.

At the same time Ed Vaizey, the culture minister, further sugared the pill by announcing that the £28m lottery grant the industry receives would be increased to around £43m by 2014.

Naughton finished, "At points, this takes the programme more into the realm of edgy, Shameless-style drama than gentle festive comedy; but Wynne manages to sugar the pill with a good deal of warm Northern humour".

You should have asked the General for a higher price to sweeten the pill.

He'd tried a dozen ways to open this conversation as he drove back, but why try to sweeten the pill?

To sweeten the pill, the government will try to boost the flagging economy in various ways.

Sweeten the pill, lay it on, thick and heavy.

The appanage system was used to sweeten the pill of the primogeniture.

But he tries to sweeten the pill with some excruciating unfunny funny business.

I used every conceivable argument to sweeten the pill - to the accompaniment of his grumbling.

It is a lot for employees to swallow, but Mr. May has tried to sweeten the pill.

They tried to sweeten the pill.

"To sweeten the pill, I'll lend you my raincoat.

Thank heavens she chose to sweeten the pill!"

However, this report, despite trying to 'sweeten the pill', is profoundly negative, which is obviously why we reject it.

That move may have sweetened the pill financially for Mr. Gucci by providing annual consultancy fees.

He was reported to have sweetened the pill by obtaining Mr. Weizsacker's agreement to accompany him.

Sweetening the pill of Kosovo's independence with a Stabilisation and Association Agreement may be a way forward.

'I've got something that might help,' he said, opening his jacket,'- something to sweeten the pill.'

To help sweeten the pill, Kadyrov resorted to theatrical praise of Vladimir Putin.

Priority for SMEs and proposals to draw up a list of the groups which will benefit from the measures merely sweetens the pill.

However, the realisation that he would eventually inherit the farm at Skiplam, when Maisie's father was too old to run it, sweetened the pill.

The survey also shows, however, that the Chancellor could sweeten the pill by extending the time limit on capital allowances to help counter the late payment of debts.

Cappen thought it best to sweeten the pill: 'I'm known to Molin Torchholder.

ICT is probably going to be dropped (because there's no room for it in our new slimmed-down curriculum) but we'll find a way of sweetening the pill."

Freezing a plan halts the growth of benefits, and even though most companies sweeten the pill by expanding their 401(k) programs, the move often dashes the hopes of older workers.

Paschal II, who was slowly giving way on the question of homage, which Anselm looked on as settled, sweetened the pill by piecemeal concessions on the primacy.

The edict contained a condition seemingly aimed at sweetening the pill for resistant Sunni Arabs: that a new police or army recruit must agree "not to help the occupier against his compatriots."