Private Eye (Cyclops / 676) Downing Street Laxity

by

Cyclops is on a run of relatively easy crosswords lately.

This one got finished within the half-hour. Top right quadrant complete and two-thirds filled in by the end of the first pass at about 20 minutes.  So there were plenty of crossing letters to help get those last 9 or so over the next few minutes.  One clue that gave me a lot of trouble was 12A which had me trying to think of islands that were known for being particularly windy.
Unfortunately Keir Starmer is still outside Downing Street.

 

Across
1 WASPISH Spiteful as the American elite? (7)
Cryptic Def. of W.A.S.P.-ish White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
The usual story – the first read is the Last One In
5 ARRAIGN One raring to go off – “Charge!” (7)
(A RARING)* AInd: to go off
10 OTTAWA Prescott, a waffler, hoarding capital (6)
Hidden (hoarding) inside prescOTT A WAffler
11 ORBITER Alternative Tyson type of spacecraft? (7)
OR (alternative) BITER (Tyson, for obvious reasons)
12 KLANSMAN Sank windy island, drowning large white supremacist (8)
(SANK)* AInd: windy, and MAN (island), all around L[arge].  I found this tricky
13 ISRAEL State: “I’d back away from the PM” (6)
DISRAELI with out I’D< [d]ISREAL[i]
14/4 KEIR STARMER “Strike off member!” – Brenda (Corbyn follower) (4,7)
(STRIKE)* AInd: off, ARM (member) ER (Brenda)
A Corbyn follower because he has followed Corbyn
16 RUN THROUGH Have a stab at rehearsal (3-7)
Double definition
18 EYEGLASSES Organ good, girls? Prescription item (10)
EYE (organ) G[ood] LASSES (girls)
22/21 PUBLIC DEBT Abandoned BBC led up it – the nation’s burden (6,4)
(BBC LED UP IT)* AInd: Abandoned
24 RICKSHAW Transport member stripped of power, wash-out (8)
[p]RICK (member – p[ower]) (WASH)* AInd: out
26 SATIATE Was an MP one put away and stuff? (7)
SAT (was an MP) I (one) ATE (put away)
27 LAXITY Freedom of non-professionals to grab a kiss (6)
LAITY (non-professionals) around X (kiss)
28 ATTRACT Draw thanks for backing sources of terrible Republican legislation (7)
TA< (thanks, backing) T[errible] R[epublican] ACT (legislation)
29 PRAYERS What to say when you’re about to choke contestants wanting a change of side? (7)
PLAYERS (contestants) swap L/R (change of side)
Down
2 ARTILLERY Big guns buggered up literary festival’s finale (9)
(LITERARY [festiva]L)* AInd: buggered up
3 PLAIN … as a pikestaff left in arse (5)
L[eft] inside PAIN (arse)
In truth this was the first clue answered because the ellipsis caught my eye when I turned the page and the “filling in the blank” for the saying was extremely obvious
6 RUBBISH After little resistance, Bush surprisingly grabs sexually unfussy person’s balls (7)
R[esistance] (BUSH)* AInd: surprisingly, around (grabs) BI (sexually unfussy person)
7 AFTERWORD PS. we conflicted with old fart with political allegiance changing (9)
(WE FART OLD (swap L for R) )* AInd: conflicted.  Another swap L for R
8 GORGE Stuff ex-pop star, Michael – no end of pretence (5)
GEORGE (Michael) – [pretenc]E
9 DOWNING STREET Detesting worn out British government (7,6)
(DETESTING WORM)* AInd: out
15 REGULATOR Topless lager lout pissed on last of beer (‘Governor‘) (9)
([l]AGER LOUT)* AInd: pissed, [bee]R
17 GIBRALTAR Lofty rejected Regina at the point of getting married (disputed territory) (9)
BIG< (Lofty, rejected) R[egina] ALTAR (at the point of getting married)
19 ARCHAIC Old-fashioned, sly CIA scheme (7)
ARCH (sly) (CIA)* AInd: scheme.  I called this an anagram rather than a reversal because ‘scheme’ could hardly be called a reverse indicator
20 SECULAR Ulcers, unfortunately, limiting a lay (7)
(ULCERS)* AInd: unfortunately, around A
23 UPSET Old tax applied after raise? Piss off! (5)
S.E.T (Old tax, Selective Employment Tax) after UP (raise)
That certainly is an old tax – I had to check it and look it up – it was dropped before I ever earned enough to be taxed
25 SIXTY Figure is rejected by Times – Tory party gutted (5)
IS< (is, rejected) X (times) T[or]Y

I just found that      7 x 3942  =  73 x 9 x 42
wonder who I should tell?

8 comments on “Private Eye (Cyclops / 676) Downing Street Laxity”

  2. I wrote a quick program, and found some other solutions:

    2 x 7695 = 27 x 6 x 95 = 15,390

    4 x 1435 = 41 x 4 x 35 = 5,740

    5 x 5775 = 55 x 7 x 75 = 28,875

  4. Well, it took about 5 minutes to write, and another minute or two for the answers to chug in. I find stuff like this interesting.

  5. I wonder how it pans out for, say, ABCDEFG, where each character is either a digit or an operator.

  7. Thanks beermagnet -I found this more tricky than you as always, but muddled my way through it.

    As a post script….I remember checking whether 7d AFTERWORD was an actual word.

  8. Beermagnet, I’ve come to this a bit late, but noticed a couple of typos:

    13a I’D< [d]ISREAL[i]
    Is that raelly how you spell Disraeli?

    9d Who doesn't detest worms?

    I was really stuck with KEIR STARMER till I got WASPISH. I'd worked out it was ??ARMER and could only think of 'charmer'.

    I realise now I never worked the "old tax" in 23d, just BIFD.

Comments are closed.