When the plague reappeared in Britain and on the continent in the 1660s, European countries used tit-for-tat quarantines to keep out competitors, skim fees from merchants, reassure trading partners and punish those who quarantined them.

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What the new party may do, though, is to skim votes from Mrs Merkel's CDU and its allies in government, so making it easier for the opposition Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens to form a government.

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There does not need to be a middleman to skim a profit from mortgage guarantees either.

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Critics believe RosUkrEnergo and companies connected to it serve primarily to skim off profits from the gas trade.

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It contains eight grams of oats per serving, eight grams of protein from skim milk, fruit juice, and sugar.

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"They're not trying to skim off money from everybody else, " he said.

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But analysts say it could skim enough votes from Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats to make it harder for her to retain power.

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When the jam is ready, use a stainless-steel spoon to skim any remaining foam from the surface of the jam.

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But 10% actually lowballs the true cost of such plans to the taxpayer, because insurers use a variety of marketing tricks to skim the healthiest beneficiaries from the Medicare pool with perks such as gym memberships.

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The fact that whole milk drinkers may still end up weighing less than skim milk drinkers despite the added calories from fat actually does make some sense, however.

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