He said the Portadown leadership could not "absolve itself from responsibility for this subversion and youth".

BBC: News Online

Moreover, he did not automatically absolve Israel from responsibility for the consequences of its actions.

FORBES: The Dishonorable Smear Of Chuck Hagel: A Warrior Who Despises War

Third, elimination of the credit would not absolve gasoline blenders from meeting the mandates required by the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

FORBES: Corn Growers, Renewable Fuels Group Put Heads In Sand Over Ethanol Subsidy

Which, of course, does not absolve the government from responsibility for writing tax rules in such a way as to prevent companies paying significantly less than the official corporation tax rate - which, of course, is not easy in a globalised world where businesses can move their domiciles and can shunt revenues more or less wherever they choose.

BBC: The tax choices faced by companies

The second fiction is that squeezing the rich can absolve the rank and file from privation (other than dearer fuel, tobacco and drink).

ECONOMIST: Politics and the British budget

Instead came two all-too-political sleights of hand: a string of over-optimistic economic assumptions and the misleading message that soaking the rich could absolve the other 98% of the population from personal sacrifice.

ECONOMIST: Politics and the British budget