Cyclops includes a couple of topical references to the current Labour Party leadership contest (9/4) and has put Andy Burnham squarely in the centre ground at 15.
I had a curious conversation with my old mum a few days ago. She said “It’s nice to see that Yvette Cooper doing so well. I used to be friends with her mother Sally when she lived with her parents at the Royal George pub where her dad was the Landlord. The pub had a nice garden then and you kids used to run around there playing while we chatted over a cup of tea.”.
“Wait a minute” I said “Are you telling me that as a toddler I used to know a senior member of the last Labour government?”
I looked up YC to find she is at least 10 years younger than me and born in Inverness [Wiki] so bang goes my claim to fame.
When shall I tell my old mum?
Anyway, it looks like the modernised OMOV Party is about to vote against these career politicians of the old guard, in favour of the, err, very old guard.
We’re told this will make Labour unelectable in 2020, but this is from people who couldn’t predict the last election 5 days before it took place. I can’t believe Corbyn wants to be PM anyway. Once he’s turned Labour back to its traditional values, apogolised for the Iraq war and shed the “swarm” of Blairites (they’ll probably walk of their own volition), and after being hounded to death by most of the MSM, he’s likely to resign. In about 2018. So a new younger leader will emerge. Probably a woman.
Predictions? We got ’em. I use the dregs at the bottom of a beer glass. It comes out different every time! (Just don’t call me Mystic Mog)
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 5 | H P SAUCE | Brown cover-up appearing in the Eye (1,1,5) Double Def. Parochial reference which I got soon enough after having the crossing P from 1D (which was quite late in the day) |
| 7 | OLD BOOT | Unpretty, ageing female gets sod all – told to shift and make way for Boris’s top two (3,4) (O (sod all) and TOLD and BO[ris])* all anagrammed using AInd: to shift |
| 9/4 | LEADERSHIP CONTEST | Maybe Bush and Blair, fronting joint swindle, try a desperate charade to revive Labour? (10,7) LEADERS (Maybe Bush and Blair) HIP (joint) CON (swindle) TEST (try). |
| 12 | UNCLEAR | Ambiguous about penetrating huge body with large organ (7) C (about) inside UN (huge body) and L[arge] EAR (organ) |
| 14 | PUBES | Superb, unlikely Republican leader kicked out Bush (5) SUPE[r]B* AInd: unlikely. FOI. Bush makes you think of something genital even when captialised. |
| 15 | ANDY BURNHAM | Plus type of sex chromosome associated with Brand (prone to ranting for Labour candidate) (4,7) AND (plus) Y (type of sex chromosome) BURN (associated with Brand) HAM (prone to ranting) – bad actor’s rant, good actor’s rant when necessary. |
| 21 | ECUADOR | Copper getting into drug trouble, runs country (7) CU (copper) inside E,ADO (drug, trouble) R[uns] |
| 22 | DAFT | Potty tipped (endwise) on behind (4) [tippe]D AFT (behind) LOI and with thousands of possible words fitting ?A?T I was beginning to despair. I spent far too long trying to make LAST fit (from def. behind) but finally concentrated on synonyms of potty, not helped by considering commode based items first. |
| 23 | CONTRADICT | Challenge new art, stupid prat getting end away in bed (10) N[ew] ART* AInd: stupid, DIC[k] (Prat, getting end away), all inside COT (bed) |
| 25 | ILLNESS | Complaint from Dicky on receiving head (7) ILL (dicky) NESS (head) |
| 26 | PLUM JAM | Spread getting in a mess, jump all over lady’s top in the morning (4,3) (JUMP L[ady])* AInd: in a mess) A.M. (in the morning) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | SPEED UP | Pissed, covered in drink – move it! (5,2) PEED (pissed) inside SUP (drink) |
| 2/11 | CARD VOTE | Liberal advocate would abandon one for right system of proportional representation (4-4) (ADVOCATE – A + R)* AInd: liberal. The 2nd preference vote might prove decisive in the leadership election. This week’s Dead Ringers had an excellent skit on it: [link] at about 10:30 |
| 3 | ABOVE BOARD | Honest and up-front as a chairman of a bank is? (5,5) Double Def. |
| 6 | CARVERY | Unrestricted cuts at this establishment of fashion supported by vacuous royalty (7) CARVE (fashion) R[oyalt]Y. Unashamed plug: Brent House carvery in Somerset [link] Worth a visit if you’re nearby (and that’s me speaking as a vegetarian – they had a surprisingly good veggie choice). Astonishingly good value. I can’t believe they work that hard all the time – twice a day 7 days a week. |
| 8 | LAP UP | Relish genital area on getting mounted (3,2) LAP (genital area) UP (getting mounted) |
| 10 | HERCULEAN | Scottish female with a cruel twisted heart describing “Mythical Labour” (9) (A CRUEL)* AInd: twisted, inside HEN (Scottish female) |
| 13 | CONSULTANT | Crooked lust-filled Tory presenter, who’d charge a fortune for messing up an organisation? (10) LUST* AInd: crooked, inside CON (Tory) ANT (presenter) |
| 16 | NEUTRAL | Bland new Brussels test to extradite Cyclops (7) N[ew] EU (Brussels) TR[i]AL |
| 17 | ASSAULT | Abuse dick one last month (7) ASS (dick) A (one) ULT (last month) |
| 18 | CRUCIAL | Key spies taking controversial police force line (7) RUC (controversial police force) inside CIA (spies), L[ine] |
| 20 | BUCKS | Screws bishop for key money (5) F/BUCKS swap F (key) for B[ishop] |
| 24/19 | DAMP SQUIB | PM quids ahead initially, rashly taking Boris’s lead, which doesn’t go off well (4,5) (PM QUIDS A[head])* AInd: rashly, B[oris] |
It has now been established that the Three Wise Men were Yorkshiremen: They came from the East Riding on camels.
(First cracker joke of 2015 in honour of Selfridges opening their Christmas section this month: Guardian article )
I’m glad that someone who is miles ahead of me in this found “Daft” a hard one. I’ve been doing Cyclops’ puzzles assiduously for a couple of years but the last two have seemed to move up a grade in difficulty.
Hiya. I found this weeks Private Eye crosswword quite difficult. I clicked on the Brent House carvery link and it seems a good eating house.There is a great sunday carvery place here in Derry called The Waterfoot hotel.Well worth a visit. I would have have never got 18 down in a month of sundays.
Tony
20dn gets my accolade for the best clue, for its nice combination of misdirection and surface meaning. It was also the last one I got. Bizarrely perhaps, given that it was PE, I think my mind had still ruled out “fuck” as a word likely to appear, actually or implicitly. Though it is true that I’ve not found any overt instances in my largeish archive; whereas screws are two a penny.