Remove space when several gb4e examples

Question

I would like to reduce the space when several examples follow each other. My examples are all quite long (several lines) and I provide a free translation (no gloss).

[Edit] This is an attempt of a minimal working example:

   \documentclass{book}
    \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
    \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
    \usepackage{setspace}
    \newcounter{ex}
    \usepackage{enumitem}
    \usepackage{gb4e}
    \noautomath
    \makeatletter
    \apptocmd{\@exe}{\singlespacing}{}{}
    \makeatother

    \begin{document}

... François Bayrou: 

 \begin{exe}
            \ex \begin{otherlanguage*}{french}\textsc{Lucien Degauchy (UMP)} [majority]: C’est Bayrou qui a écrit ce discours ! (FR 2006.12.12) \end{otherlanguage*} \\
            \begin{small} \emph{\textsc{Lucien Degauchy (UMP)} [majority]: Bayrou has written this speech!} \end{small}
        \end{exe}

It is thus widely acknowledged... \\

... the corpus: 

\begin{exe}
    \exr{ex:wrote}
    {\textsc{Mr. David Cameron (Tories)} [majority]: \textbf{The right hon. Gentleman} clearly wrote his questions before coming to the House and listening to my statement. (UK 2011.12.12)}
    \end{exe}

    \begin{exe}
        \ex \textsc{Sir Edward Leigh (Tories)} [majority]: We are all being a bit unfair on the Labour party. After all, 40 years ago it was the Labour party that gave us a referendum and, to be fair to the Liberals, they promised one in the last Parliament, although I do not understand why they have gone wobbly on trusting \textbf{the people}. Perhaps it is because \textbf{the people} may give the wrong answer. (UK 2015.03.23)
    \end{exe}

    \begin{exe}
        \ex \textsc{Mr. David Cameron (Tories)} [majority]: The problem is, though, that \textbf{the people who have lent the money to Greece} want their money back, and they believe that Greece should carry out a series of reforms before they give it any more money. (UK 2015.03.23)
    \end{exe}

    \end{document}

There are more packages but they should be irrelevant to the question. [End of the edited part]

In the preamble I am using:

\usepackage{gb4e}
\noautomath 

and

\makeatletter
\apptocmd{\@exe}{\singlespacing}{}{}
\makeatother

so that the examples are single spaced.

I am using https://www.latextemplates.com/template/masters-doctoral-thesis.

When I mention only one example, it looks the way I want:

This is the code corresponding to example 8:

\begin{exe}
        \ex \begin{otherlanguage*}{french}\textsc{Lucien Degauchy (UMP)} [majority]: C’est Bayrou qui a écrit ce discours ! (FR 2006.12.12) \end{otherlanguage*} \\
        \begin{small} \emph{\textsc{Lucien Degauchy (UMP)} [majority]: Bayrou has written this speech!} \end{small}
    \end{exe}

But I have several examples as a list, it does not and there is too much space between the examples:

This is the code corresponding to example 5, 34, and 35:

\begin{exe}
    \exr{ex:wrote}
    {\textsc{Mr. David Cameron (Tories)} [majority]: \textbf{The right hon. Gentleman} clearly wrote his questions before coming to the House and listening to my statement. (UK 2011.12.12)}
    \end{exe}

    \begin{exe}
        \ex \textsc{Sir Edward Leigh (Tories)} [majority]: We are all being a bit unfair on the Labour party. After all, 40 years ago it was the Labour party that gave us a referendum and, to be fair to the Liberals, they promised one in the last Parliament, although I do not understand why they have gone wobbly on trusting \textbf{the people}. Perhaps it is because \textbf{the people} may give the wrong answer. (UK 2015.03.23)
    \end{exe}

    \begin{exe}
        \ex \textsc{Mr. David Cameron (Tories)} [majority]: The problem is, though, that \textbf{the people who have lent the money to Greece} want their money back, and they believe that Greece should carry out a series of reforms before they give it any more money. (UK 2015.03.23)
    \end{exe}

A possible solution is to add \begin{singlespace*} and \end{singlespace*} for each example, but then there is not enough space between the example and the following text.

Another solution is to have \begin{exe} only once and then \end{exe} at the end of the list, but then there is barely any space between the examples and it is very uncomfortable to read.

I am thankful for any help!

Answer 1

If you have several \exes in a row, you should place them in the same exe environment. That avoids excessive space between the \exes caused by ending and beginning a new exe environment.

If you feel that the space between two example items is too narrow in that case, you can increase it by modifying the value \itemsep when you also set the \singlespacing for \@exe.

In the example below we set the space between two items to double its normal space in exe, which I think looks OK, but you can choose any value you like.

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[french,british]{babel}
\usepackage{libertine}
\usepackage{setspace}
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\usepackage{gb4e}
\noautomath
\makeatletter
\apptocmd{\@exe}{%
  \singlespacing
  \setlength{\itemsep}{2\itemsep}%
}{}{}
\makeatother

\newcommand*{\person}[1]{\textsc{#1}}
\newcommand*{\important}[1]{\textbf{#1}}

\begin{document}

\begin{exe}
  \exr{ex:wrote} \person{Mr.\ David Cameron (Tories)} [majority]:
    \important{The right hon.\ Gentleman} clearly wrote his questions before
    coming to the House and listening to my statement. (UK 2011.12.12)

  \ex \person{Sir Edward Leigh (Tories)} [majority]:
    We are all being a bit unfair on the Labour party. After all, 40 years ago
    it was the Labour party that gave us a referendum and, to be fair to the
    Liberals, they promised one in the last Parliament, although I do not
    understand why they have gone wobbly on trusting \important{the people}.
    Perhaps it is because \textbf{the people} may give the wrong answer.
    (UK 2015.03.23)

  \ex \person{Mr.\ David Cameron (Tories)} [majority]:
  The problem is, though, that \important{the people who have lent the money to
  Greece} want their money back, and they believe that Greece should carry out
  a series of reforms before they give it any more money. (UK 2015.03.23)
\end{exe}
Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum, quia dolor sit, amet, consectetur,
adipisci velit
\begin{exe}
  \ex
    \begin{otherlanguage*}{french}
      \person{Lucien Degauchy (UMP)} [majority]:
      C’est Bayrou qui a écrit ce discours ! (FR 2006.12.12)
    \end{otherlanguage*} \\
    {\small \emph{\person{Lucien Degauchy (UMP)} [majority]: Bayrou has written this speech!}}
\end{exe}
\end{document}