The first minister, they argued, was guilty of misleading parliament and of seeking to nobble a critic.

BBC: Contrite apology from Salmond

If they are favoured, state-controlled banks will provide them with cheap loans and bureaucrats will nobble their foreign competitors.

ECONOMIST: The hidden costs of state capitalism

Many Germans detect a plot to nobble their exporters.

ECONOMIST: Germany and the euro

In October one group, under the politically correct rubric of promoting transparency and accountability, sought (so far unsuccessfully) to nobble the budget, and thus the independence, of the Office of the High Commissioner, Navi Pillay.

ECONOMIST: A long-despised watchdog wakes up, barks and even bites