A Parliamentary theme for this week’s prize puzzle, with references to current Parliamentarians from the three major parties in England.
I found this rather easier than Paul’s standard cryptic puzzle in the Guardian the previous day, which I failed to complete. On this occasion I had the assistance of my solving partner Timon, which may explain why I was able to finish it within the hour. Lots of witty surfaces to admire, and none of Paul’s toilet humour (unless you include the Miliband anagram).
| Across | ||
| 1,22down,15 | IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME | Tory rebel worse off with Miliband, an uncomfortable diagnosis (9,5,8) |
| *(TORY REBEL WORSE MILIBAND). A political anagram to get us started. | ||
| 6 | NOON | Twelve there, twelve back (4) |
| Cryptic definition. The first of three palindromes in this puzzle. | ||
| 8 | HORMONAL | Ex-minister loves to replace articles with a line that’s feeling moody? (8) |
| (Harriet) HARMAN (with Os for the As), A L. Another Labour politician. | ||
| 9 | OUTWIT | Get the better of the twerp from Balliol, say (6) |
| OU TWIT. Not a homophone, despite the “say”. | ||
| 10 | CYGNET | Baby bird with canary, gyrfalcon and egret’s wings (6) |
| Outer letters of CanarY GyrfalcoN EgreT. | ||
| 11 | AMICABLE | Friendly minister not convinced by his own identity? (8) |
| AM I (Vince) CABLE? Took a while for the penny to drop, but a laugh-out-loud moment when it did. ConVINCEd was a big help, if not strictly necessary. | ||
| 12 | ITSELF | On reflection, that is left, not right (6) |
| Cryptic definition and anagram of IS LEFT. I seem to remember that this is an example of what grammarians call a reflexive pronoun. | ||
| 15 | See 1 | |
| 16 | STOPCOCK | Valve hit, high-pitched note coming in (8) |
| TOP C in SOCK. | ||
| 19 | LIFTED | Organ in song hoisted up (6) |
| FT (an organ of the press) in LIED (German song). | ||
| 21 | HARANGUE | Pompous speech minister has dashed through (8) |
| RAN in (William) HAGUE. | ||
| 22 | BOXING | House not entirely accepting animal sport (6) |
| OX in BING(o). | ||
| 24 | GOVERN | Minister managed to overlook a rule (6) |
| (Michael) GOVE R(a)N. | ||
| 25 | LAWSUITS | Awful slut I was, in some cases (8) |
| *(SLUT I WAS). | ||
| 26 | ESAU | Biblical character in Joshua sent reeling (4) |
| Hidden and reversed in JoshUA SEnt. Credit to Timon: ‘e saw it, I didn’t. | ||
| 27 | SINGLETON | Tell twice one’s alone (9) |
| SING, LET ON. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | IVORY | A hunted-for key? (5) |
| Cryptic definition. | ||
| 2 | ROMANCE | Cameron’s foreign affair (7) |
| *(CAMERON). A bit of a old chestnut, this anagram, although this is a particularly concise clue and of course it fits the theme perfectly. | ||
| 3 | TENET | Principle that can do a U-turn? (5) |
| Another palindrome. | ||
| 4 | BALLADS | Ex-minister covering commercial songs (7) |
| AD in (Ed) BALLS. | ||
| 5 | EMOTIONAL | Parliamentary proposal written in detail, even parts provoking strong feeling (9) |
| MOTION in E A L (even letters in dEtAiL). | ||
| 6 | NOT FAIR | Old fart in reactionary, unjust (3,4) |
| *(O FART IN). | ||
| 7 | ORIFLAMME | Standard Italian coastal region a non-starter up in Rome, perhaps? (9) |
| (A)MALFI (rev) in *ROME. The last one in for us; it means a flag or banner, but I was only familiar with it as the name of this orchestra. | ||
| 13 | TETRAGONS | Shape great among many quadrilaterals (9) |
| *GREAT in TONS. | ||
| 14 | FLOGGINGS | Affairs involving great leader go up for punishment by the whips (9) |
| G(reat) GO (rev) in FLINGS. | ||
| 17 | PLATEAU | Raised up walls in behind a flat surface (7) |
| LATE (as in behind time) A in UP (rev). “walls” here is a verb, not a noun. | ||
| 18 | KREMLIN | Where to find a crackpot like Mr Putin, ultimately? (7) |
| *(LIKE MR) (puti)N. | ||
| 20 | FOXHUNT | Two Tories in pursuit of the inedible (7) |
| Conservative MPs Dr Liam FOX, and Jeremy HUNT; a reference to the Oscar Wilde quote about foxhunting: “the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable”. | ||
| 22 | See 1 across | |
| 23 | NOT ON | It’s unacceptable, however you look at it (3,2) |
| The third palindrome. | ||
*anagram
Thanks bridgesong. Despite only a superficial knowledge of British politicians most of this fell into place quite readily. The SW corner held me up for a while and I had to stare at 17 for rather longer than most.
Thanks bridgesong. Same as Biggles – eg 24A, last in. I expected 12A to be a palindrome like three other answers, especially with ‘on reflection’ as a cue: still couldn’t quite parse it. Loved KREMLIN.
Many thanks Bridgesong & Paul
Yes, this was easier than most but very enjoyable nonetheless.
It was also good to know that some of our politicians do have their uses.
A nicely clued Prize Puzzle from Paul.
Just about hard enough for a Prize. I was briefly held up by the SW corner. 24A was nice misdirection with “minister” and 17D took a while to parse once I had seen ESAU and realised that PLATEAU must be the solution.
An enjoyable workout though it seemed to lack Paul’s usual humour. (Perhaps he was 8A 😉 )
Thanks to bridgesong and Paul
Hello Brendan @4.
Presumably you don’t count Paul’s flatulent reference in 6d as an example of his ‘usual humour’.
More enjoyable than many of his puzzles for me.
No I didn’t George.
I don’t believe the expression “old fart” has any real reference to flatulence in its meaning. Or does it?
I also found this more straightforward than a lot of Paul puzzles, and as has been noted above there wasn’t much of his trademark humour on display, although I can’t help feeling he missed a trick with 16ac.
Thanks bridgebong,
Lots of good stuff here from Paul. I really enjoyed this puzzle although I was stuck in the SW for ages till HARANGUE came along. I thought that 12a was a bit obscure. Now I know that ITSELF is a reflexive form of IT. I particularly liked AMICABLE (favourite), BOXING, GOVERN, SINGLETON, KREMLIM and FOXHUNT (excellent clue).
Thanks muchly Paul.
Can’t remember too much about this, so it can’t have been very difficult. HORMONAL, FOXHUNT, AMICABLE and the IBS anagram amused me, and although I remembered the word ORIFLAMME I wouldn’t have known what it meant. In 9a I think the “say” is needed because Balliol is just one of many colleges of Oxford University.
Thanks to Paul and bridgesong
I had to have the Wikipedia pages for the cabinet and shadow cabinet open while doing this, as I hadn’t heard of most of these folks. Enjoyable all the same. Paul has clearly become my favorite setter.
In fairness, I can’t name half the members of the U.S. cabinet either, at least not off the top of my head. There are simply more important things than knowing who, say, the Secretary of Transportation is.
…though in fairness, we have separation of powers, so cabinet members aren’t also Congressmen. I could probably do better at naming members of Congress, since they’re in the news more.
Thanks all
I found this very straightforward except that although Gove is the most notorious (I will leave my adjective unsuitably bland) I failed to solve 24 across.
I liked 8ac and especially 18 down.
Thanks Paul and bridesong
A good challenge that I only looked at this weekend. Like mrpenney, I needed some electronic help to get through all of the pollies!
Typical clever and fair clue construction throughout. There is very rarely, if ever, a complaint against him for that, which it is why he’s amongst my favourites too.
My holdups were also in the SW with STOPCOCK and FLOGGINGS my last two in.
A bit late to the party but I must say I had several laugh-out-loud moments, particularly at AMICABLE.
Many thanks to Paul and bridgesong