on paper

"He doesn't look at the bank account … as far as looking at it on paper, what we have coming in and what we have going out, I carry that burden," one woman said.

Parliament has previously reported that - at least on paper - importers were being paid to bring in far more petrol than the country consumed.

Canada might not be particularly fearsome on paper but, as they showed last year, are greater than the sum of their parts.

But, the cases weren’t immediately investigated, as required by department policy, because of the department’s reliance on paper records.

Classic melancholy on paper perhaps, but live it sounds brutally honest, unapologetically raging and resigned in equal measure.