on the face of it

On the face of it, the ad is an attempt to convince people that you're the good guys in this fight.

Well on the face of it, anyone would be daft not to get contents cover included on their van insurance.

The iPad is a curiously seductive device for something that is, on the face of it, a touchscreen laptop with the keyboard removed.

On the face of it, the measures seem surprising given that foreigners account for only a small part of property investment.

On the face of it, their troubles are few: in 20 years of radical change all the obvious economic issues have been dealt with.

On the face of it, it seems as if most Asian nations are still emulating this western model.

On the face of it, the trip could scarcely have been a more welcome respite for Mr Aso.

On the face of it, yields of close to 8% should be enough to steady the market, provided investors start to regain their nerve.

On the face of it, those in the mobile camp seem to have won.

On the face of it, that sounds like a scenario straight out of cheap science fiction.

On the face of it there is much to be said for the Fed's and the Bank's approach.

So London had, on the face of it, every incentive to help the Confederates tear America in two.

On the face of it, this is bizarre really because country music is all about heartache.

To the extent that successive governments had a strategy, it was on the face of it an attractive one: they believed in open energy markets.

On the face of it, a gloomy outlook argues for Treasuries.

On the face of it, the pact is about bolstering the economic bit of Europe's economic and monetary union (see Charlemagne).

"On the face of it, shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world, " he said.

On the face of it, it is hard to think of a less likely trigger for trouble in global equity markets.

On the face of it, this seems like a rather neat idea, which ticks every box for a mass action.

The very idea of a cautious revolutionary would seem, on the face of it, a contradiction in terms.

ON THE face of it, Congress has seldom been busier, or the parties more ready to co-operate.

On the face of it, he seems to be telling the truth though I suspect he's hiding something.

On the face of it there seems much to be said for the world's shakers and movers meeting and talking frequently.

A game on the face of it doesn't seem to do a lot, but the key gameplay fixes and changes create a domino effect on the rest of the product.

Cost could be one of them, though on the face of it Britain is not out of line.

On the face of it, the drive to "internationalise" the renminbi does not seem to derive from controlling urges.

On the face of it, Bouygues SA's decision to share the risk with the brothers was an odd one.

On the face of it, Chinese regulators have had a remarkably light touch.

On the face of it, it is a humanitarian response to the floods that have devastated the north-west part of the impoverished North.

Where on the face of it, looking like Thai soldiers cleaning up a drug running gang, this incident exposes increasing border tensions.

On the face of it, Britain ought to be attractive for budding green industrialists.

Although he said he wanted to study the plans' details, Mr Krugman wrote "on the face of it this looks entirely reasonable" .

On the face of it, they tend to be much more confident of China's inexorable rise than their Chinese counterparts.

On the face of it, it sounds like a traditional sticky rice sweet is enjoying a culinary renaissance.

But to be careful to protect those small gold biological Oh, on the face of it they eat, machines will be worse.

On the face of it, what you said is completely correct, but you will find that it is wrong if you analyze it carefully.

The key decision makers in the ordering process on the face of it are the store managers and the commercials at the HQ.

On the face of it, oil should last only a few more decades.

On the face of it, I feel there is no big difference between English and Croatian football.

That said, on the face of it, there does appear to be evidence of war crimes in this material.

On the face of it, this horse-trading is odd (though stitch-ups of the parliamentary presidency are quite normal).

Such comments are, on the face of it, nothing new for Mr Karzai, who previously invited the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, to talks in Kabul.

On the face of it, this presidential reaction, though traditional among chief executives, is rather puzzling.

On the face of it, his decision was a blow to the cause of peace.

On the face of it, equity is the most natural way for precocious, up-and-coming economies to raise money abroad.

On the face of it , the case had been concluded successfully.

This is, on the face of it, a firm timetable.

This was due to earlier auto plant shutdowns but positive on the face of it.

On the face of it, continental Europe ought now to be better placed to cope.

On the face of it his claim appears persuasive still. In most of Asia, marriage is widespread and illegitimacy almost unknown.

On the face of it, biofuels look like a great solution.

On the face of it, this appears to be a story about the breakneck development that is taking place throughout the country.

On the face of it, then, artificial life looks like a wonderful thing.

ON THE face of it the world's big and publicly quoted oil companies should be celebrating some pleasing results this week.

On the face of it, the trip seems quite cheap, but there could be extra expenses we don't know about yet.

That's odd, on the face of it, because China's interests in Iran are very different from Russia's.

On the face of it is same kind of liuzhou-flavor liquor, and cause its homogeneity of the deep reason?

On the face of it, his theory is OK, but we still have to wait and see how it works in practice.

On the face of it, Mr Putin gets on with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; he even invited the Iranian president to Moscow.

The idea that an ancient Indian epic might offer insight into capitalism's nature, on the face of it, appears bizarre.

The military and commercial worlds are different, and do not on the face of it have a lot in common.

On the face of it, the answer is straightforward: tax employer- provided health benefits.

On the face of it, the obesity epidemic in rich countries presents exactly the opposite problem.

On the face of it, Mr Causey's plea bargain is also a victory for government prosecutors, who will gain a powerful witness.

On the face of it, scouring the world for a superstar makes perfect sense.

On the face of it, these should be great times for the investment management companies that have launched funds in China.

"On the face of it, taped lectures should be boring, " Mr. Anderson said.

On the face of it, the similarities between China today and bubble-era Japan are worrying.

On the face of it, this may seem a good suggestion, but on second thoughts we find that. . .

On the face of it, there seems little reason why 23 million North Koreans should continue to support their "Dear Leader" .

On the face of it, the prospect of regular euro-zone summits is a setback also for Germany.

On the face of it, the daunting complexity of the tax code seems similar.

On the face of it these two trends seem contradictory. But they stem from the same basic cause.

On the face of it, the medias relative disregard of agriculture is surprising.

Mr. Paulson was really making the suggestion, on the face of it fairly reasonable, that a global crisis probably had global origins.

On the face of it Palestinians have chosen principle over pragmatism.

On the face of it , Mr Buffett's gambit looks both unwise and uncharacteristic .

On the face of it, networks are less important in more meritocratic America.

On the face of it, banks are feeling the pinch, charging each other high rates in the interbank lending market.

So on the face of it, that makes price maximums appear draconian - particularly since market values in China are often far higher.

On the face of it, these comments were both obvious and inconsequential.

On the face of it, China has become the living proof that stock markets are almost perfectly efficient.

On the face of it, this configuration of people and power on both sides of the fence spells doom.

The UK's Emerald Energy and Nufarm of Australia don't have much in common, on the face of it.

On the face of it, evidence in favour of independent schools looks strong.

On the face of it, that is a vast sum of money, leaving each bank with an average $28m.

ON THE face of it, Romania's software industry could hardly be doing better.

On the face of it, there are ample historic and strategic reasons for China to increase military aid to Pakistan.

On the face of it, this great dollar unwinding looks only half complete.

On the face of it, this shift to the right has already paid dividends.

On the face of it, robots are the perfect workers.

Though their power is renewable and, on the face of it, carbon-free, there are lots of bad things about them, too.

On the face of it, Currie's is a riveting story of girl empowerment and fame.

On the face of it, there are few strategic lessons to be learnt.

I see it as an objective impossible on the face of it.

On the face of it, there is every difference in the world between superstitious and empirical, evidence-based thinking.

Even Mr Welch has expressed doubts: "On the face of it, shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world, " he said last year.

On the face of it, none of this is surprising.

On the face of it, becoming an entrepreneur can sound scary.

On the face of it, this might explain why fewer people are married. They want to finish college first.

On the face of it, the Spanish fears look exaggerated.

All right, on the face of it leaden Gordon Brown may not have much in common with fleet Muhammad Ali.

On the face of it, Laos is a no man's land for foreign investors.

It is audacious, disruptive and preposterous on the face of it.

But, on the face of it, this is the most impressive choice America has had for a very long time.

On the face of it , it seems quite reasonable.

On the face of it, it seems the perfect solution.

On the face of it, HSBC still looks the obvious choice, even though it is present in "only" 87 countries compared with Citi's 100-plus.

On the face of it the changes are largely cosmetic.

On the face of it, the document seemed genuine.

On the face of it, its democracy is working as usual.

On the face of it, there are powerful incentives to defuse the tensions.

On the face of it, the M4 measure of broad money (cash and deposits) has been growing fast.

On the face of it, she seems almost perfect.

On the face of it, this suggests that we're screwing up, when in fact what is happening is more complex.

On the face of it, the alliance is a success.

On the face of it firms are in a position to spend more and aid the recovery.

On the face of it, predicting the World Cup looks easy.

On the face of it, the problem seems minor.

The South Pacific is, on the face of it, still a healthy ocean.

His statement that he is a millionaire is, on the face of it, false.

On the face of it, the slowdown in inflation to 2. 4% in March from 2. 6% in February might not argue strongly for higher rates.

But first things first: on the face of it, this is tremendously good news.

On the face of it, the compensation in this case appears generous: 1. 6 million renminbi, or about $252, 000, for each household.

On the face of it, this is not an ideal time for radical change.

On the face of it, Russia seems stable: there are no queues outside the banks.

So on the face of it, this is definitely communication.

I'd say bad on the face of it.

On the face of it, yes.

On the face of it, these are lean times for champions of Asian democracy.

On the face of it, that is an odd question.

On the face of it, this is false: programmers test their code all the time, and they do find bugs.

On the face of it, this represents a big drop in China's demand for foreign assets.

On the face of it, agriculture in Japan displayed many of the characteristics shown in today's developing countries.

On the face of it From appearances alone; apparently

And so, at least on the face of it,