The Independent, echoing the Mail, described Cameron's concessions as "footling" and, in so doing, "has left himself looking fairly foolish" with "modest adjustments to qualified majority voting, tax credits and a miscellany of minor measures".
These were "modest adjustments" to help fund her Gonski schools plan.
But the dirigiste statism of the traditional French approach, which has produced a political situation in which even modest adjustments to civil servants' pensions can produce widespread social unrest, is another, milder version.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a research group in Washington, has published a stream of reports contending that projected shortfalls for Social Security have been greatly exaggerated and can be fixed by modest adjustments to future benefits or taxes.
After the story appeared, a Starbucks executive said that the company would make modest adjustments to its staffing practices, including eliminating back-to-back shifts and enforcing its policy of giving workers their schedules at least one week in advance.
"The bill leaves many of the government's most intrusive and overbroad surveillance powers untouched, and it makes only very modest adjustments to disclosure and transparency requirements," he added.
All states use a version of this "experience rating" to set unemployment taxes; Massachusetts under Mr. Romney moved from a modest adjustment to one of the steepest slopes.
As of Tuesday, the forecast model — which incorporated a modest adjustment for the voter ID law that has now been reversed — gives Mr. Obama a 97.7 percent of winning the state's electoral votes on Nov. 6.
And yet, the modest adjustments made to U.S. payroll taxes, an uptick of 2percentthatat returns the rate to 2010 levels, could have more than a moderate impact on what people donate to nonprofits.
