But Rahul, who on the face of it suffers none of these vulnerabilities, has less excuse.

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It would also leave the Bundesrat with less excuse for meddling in federal affairs.

ECONOMIST: A not-so-model system

But with membership mostly achieved or assured, and incomes rising, they now have less excuse for looking the other way.

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The ability to go back and forth between that information and the actual machine would be useful and might give shoppers less excuse to check out models on their smart phones or iPads while in the store (in the process perhaps spotting a lower price and leaving to buy online).

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In October, JP Morgan relinquished some documents with an apology and less-then-compelling excuse.

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Some Asian countries are using the region's financial crisis as an excuse to offer less liberalisation than they might have.

ECONOMIST: Dealing for dollars

But the policy change is seen by many Labour councils as an excuse to make less use of private firms.

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Even the much-maligned figure of rational economic man, maximising his utility, is less an article of faith than an excuse to use calculus.

ECONOMIST: Economics focus

Given half an excuse, he would happily seek an alternative coalition with the Christian Democrats or, rather less happily, with Germany's liberals, the Free Democrats.

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For example, running the same distance now uses less energy because your legs are carrying less of you: an over-sized SUV uses lots more gas than a sedan (and please excuse the metaphor).

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