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Thanks to Vlad for this puzzle, which contains some topical references. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1. Plant rejected a kind of strike after one fellow sacked (7)
FUCHSIA : Reversal of(rejected) [A + -ISH(suffix denoting “like/kind of” as in “fiendish”) + “cuff”(to strike a blow with an open hand) minus(one … sacked) “f”(abbrev. for “fellow”)].
5, 9. Current protection scheme in tatters — need extremely qualified expert (4,3,5)
TEST AND TRACE : Anagram of(in) [TATTERS + 1st and last letters of(… extremely) “need“] + ACE(qualified expert).
Defn: A Covid-19 jargon: a procedure to try to contain the epidemic.
And perhaps the surface is a commentary on the way it’s being handled.
9. See 5
10. Widespread infections gathered speed? I’m in charge, initially (9)
EPIDEMICS : Anagram of(gathered) SPEED? I’M + 1st letters, respectively, of(…, initially) “in charge“.
Defn: A topical term.
11. Attempt to stay safe at the moment — in support at first (4,2,4)
STAY AT HOME : [AT HOME](in one’s house) placed after(… at first) STAY(a support/a rope or rod supporting a ship’s mast, say).
Defn: Another topical term.
12. Life of Brian not getting an Oscar? (4)
BRIO : “Brian” minus(not getting) “an” + O(letter represented by “Oscar” in the phonetic alphabet).
Defn: …/vigour in style or performance.
14. 17 accomplished nothing with firm and in government (4,7)
DIDO HARDING : DID(accomplished/achieved) + O(letter representing 0/nothing) plus(with) HARD(firm/set) plus(and) IN + G(abbrev. for “government”).
Defn: A Baroness/solution to 17 down, who also happens to be in Parliament/an arm of the UK government.
Another topical reference.
18. Rallies, as before, when looks like holding (11)
REASSEMBLES : AS(when/at the same moment, as in “as you do this, you should do that”) contained in(… holding) RESEMBLES(looks like/with similar appearance).
Defn: What a large group can do post-Covid-19 what they used to do before Covid-19 … hopefully.
21. Amorous behaviour not unknown in secluded little spot (4)
NOOK : “nooky”(sexual intercourse/amorous behaviour) minus(not) “y”(symbol for an unknown quantity in maths).
22. Heard cab at rank is a security problem (10) {sic}
DATA BREACH : Anagram of(… rank/spreading) HEARD CAB AT.
Defn: … for computerised systems.
25. Bungling Boris maybe completely lost — it has been said before (9)
ITERATION : “alliteration”(an example of which/maybe is “Bungling Boris“) minus(… lost) “all”(completely/wholly).
Another commentary?
26. Is it as one originally maintained? (5)
IOTAS : IT AS containing(… maintained) 1st letter of(… originally) “one“.
Defn: …/plural of I, upper case “iota”, the ninth letter in the Greek alphabet.
27. Goal? Fail to score with keeper getting back (7)
MISSION : MISS(fail to score, in a football match, say) plus(with) reversal of(… getting back) NO.I(abbrev. for “Number 1”, with the Roman numeral substitution, that is often the number on a football team’s goalkeeper’s jersey).
Defn: …/a quest.
… often, but not always: 
28. Rest have told a story earlier (3,4)
LIE DOWN : OWN(to have/to possess) placed after(… earlier) LIED(told a story/an untruth).
Down
1. Fixation with France and French — want to be guillotined! (6)
FETISH : F(International Vehicle Registration Code for France) + ET(French for “and”) + “wish”(to want/to hope for) minus its 1st letter(to be guillotined/to have head cut off).
2. Virginia entering picked up bow tie at first and a possible alternative (6)
CRAVAT : VA(abbrev. for “Virginia”, a US state) contained in(entering) [reversal of(picked up, in a down clue) ARC(a bow/a part of curve such as part of a circle’s circumference) + 1st letter of(… at first) “tie“].
Defn: … to a bow tie.
3. Dessert was served as flight attendant was called (10)
STEWARDESS : Anagram of(… served) DESSERT WAS.
4. Letter on where to drink beer (5)
ALEPH : ALE(beer, which can be obtained at a …) PH(abbrev. for “public house”/a pub, where one can drink).
Defn: First … in the Hebrew alphabet.
5. Beat prince — one kept celebrating achievement (9)
TRIUMPHAL : [TRUMP(to beat/to better) + HAL(Prince Henry in Shakespeare’s plays Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, from the diminutive for “Henry”)] containing(… kept) I(Roman numeral for “one”).
6. Guide leaving town — he knows what’s coming (4)
SEER : “steer”(to guide/to pilot) minus(leaving …) “t”(abbrev. for “town”).
7. Drops environmentally unfriendly car India produced (4,4)
ACID RAIN : Anagram of(… produced) CAR INDIA.
8. Lives lost in Kansas city — manage to move (8)
DISLODGE : [IS(lives/exists) + L(abbrev. for “lost”, in, say, football league tables for matches lost)] contained in(in) DODGE(city in Kansas State, USA).
13. Heading for Spitalfields, one Ripper suspect’s an underworld figure (10)
PROSERPINE : Anagram of(… suspect) [1st letter of(Heading for) “Spitalfields” + ONE + RIPPER].
Defn: Roman equivalent of the Greek Persephone, the goddess of vegetation, and wife of Hades with whom she rules the Underworld/Hell.
15. It’s hell! Very angry about country (9)
DAMNATION! : Reversal of(… about) MAD(very angy/furious) + NATION(a country/state).
Defn: Like Hell!, an exclamation of anger or frustration.
16. Getting mates in party at end of day — is money overcoming resistance? (8)
CRONYISM : [CON(abbrev. for the Conservative Political Party) plus(at) last letter of(end of) “day” + IS + M(abbrev. for “money”)] containing(overcoming) R(symbol for electrical resistance in physics).
Defn: … to fill beneficial positions on the basis of personal relationship.
17. Rank boss near useless! (8)
BARONESS : Anagram of(… useless) BOSS NEAR.
Defn: …/a position, in the hierarchy of the British nobility.
19. Out of sorts, accused up-and-coming left-winger (6)
CASTRO : Hidden in(Out of) reversal of(… up-and-coming, in a down clue) “sorts, accused“.
Defn: Fidel, Cuban president once.
20. Picked note up in canteen before leaving (6)
CHOSEN : Reversal of(… up, in a down clue) SOH(so/note in the musical sol-fa scale) contained in(in) “canteen” minus(… leaving) “ante”(prefix signifying “before” as in “antenatal”).
23. Obsessive over new record (5)
ANNAL : ANAL(short for “anal-retentive”/obsessive/excessively fastidious) containing(over) N(abbrev. for “new”).
24. Queen showing Thatcher animosity? On the contrary (4)
RANI : Hidden in(showing …) “Thatcher animosity” rather than(On the contrary) hidden in(… showing) “Queen“.
Defn: A Hindu …
The theme helped. And I spotted it early! Thanks both.
Thanks Vlad and scchua
Very hard. First pass yielded only ACID RAIN. I needed quite a lot of electronic help to fill the grid, and several were unparsed. Loved the theme, though, with DIDO HARDING the standout.
A bit careless to have “stay” in the clue for 11a – it made me question whether STAY AT HOME could be right; “keep” would have worked just as well as “stay”.
I couldn’t parse FUCHSIA, ITERATION, or IOTAS. So thanks sschua, and of course Vlad.
Vlad is far too clever for my own good.
Many thanks, scchua, for resolving my parsing issues in the SW.
Spotted the theme almost straight away which helped a LOT. DNK RANI, PROSERPINE. Otherwise a slow solve but technically a DNF. FOI 1d which probably shows me in a not-very-good light…
Not sure whether to laugh or cry at the theme though.
[muffin @2 – yes, I had to do a double-take on that as well]
Thanks Vlad and scchua
Thanks both
[I idly wondered whether the central figure of this puzzle might have been a 3d in her early career, so I looked her up. As if. Any worries about the tone of this crossword were dispelled as I discovered a life of privilege and 16d. To think that the PM who yesterday was banging on about “unfairness” could appoint her to one of the most important jobs in this crisis makes my blood boil. Rant over]
The numeration for 22 should be (4, 6). This has been corrected on the Guardian crossword page with a ‘special instruction’, which has a Grauniad typo identifying 25 as having the numeration corrected!
And of course DIDO presided over a massive DATA BREACH at Talk Talk so your TEST AND TRACE contacts should be safe! Marina Hyde described DIDO as being in the “sh*tness protection program” 🙂
Overall this felt like swimming through custard – very contrived and forced in places. I thought presence of STAY in the definition and answer was abysmal
Cheers all
I found this tough, but after getting the topical 17D and 10A I thought “My work here is done” and I could stop there. But I persereved and eventually finished.
Of course 11A also fits in “theme” as the lady in question was CEO of Talk Talk when they had their big data breach.
Thanks Vlad and scchua
Thanks. Failed to parse ITERATION. Enjoyed (possibly not quite the right word) the topical notes. Never heard of Dido Harding but very clearly clued.
BTW I think there is an error in your parsing of PROSERPINE- it’s s + one ripper.
Thanks to Vlad and Scchua.
bodycheetah @8 – you just beat me!
muffin@2-I thought that too as did many others, I reckon-unusual for Vlad
Great puzzle as to be expected from him and many thanks to scchua for parsing
Phew, bit of a marathon, not helped by the day’s (albeit pleasant) diversions. First pass, couple of easies, eg epidemics, but then lots of gnarly Vladisms, like ‘completely lost’ meaning ‘minus all’, ‘as’ for ‘when’ held by ‘looks like’, t for town leaving steer, usw. Know the Dido who lamented, but not this one (nwst perusing BBCWS, PE, LRB). Last few in the SE took ages, but nice to nail. Enjoyed the head scratching, ta V and S.
shouldn’t the enumeration of 22a be (4,6) ?
Is the anagram indicator in TEST AND TRACE “qualified”? I sometimes find Vlad less scary than the name implies, but today seemed to live up to the name both in difficulty and the theme.
[bodycheetah @8 She certainly has form – “Talk Talk boss Dido Harding’s utter ignorance is a lesson to us all” Campaign Magazine, 27/10/15. Shirl @6 – would you trust her to get her lifejacket on the right way round? This is pure 16d]
I found this the most challenging and satisfying puzzle in many weeks – difficult to get any substantial footing in the grid, and after half an hour I suspected that I might be defeated – at least within a single sitting. But clue-by-clue it started to flow, mainly from top to bottom. EPIDEMICS and STAY AT HOME were my first two in, so for the first time ever I spotted a theme, though it didn’t help much. I’d never heard of dear DIDO (great name), though she was entirely approachable from the clue. I’d always thought of DATABREACH as two words, so that was yet another sticking point. Ironically last two in were the tiny ones, IOTAS and RANI (that old crossword staple, the only place I’ve ever met one), and ninety absolutely absorbing minutes had sped by. Even then, it took another fifteen minutes to nail down all the parsings to satisfaction. Overall, my sort of puzzle, and just like the old days. May we have more.
@grantinfreo This Dido is now known as Dido in Carnage, in homage to the original
Bodycheetah@8 – agree with the sentiments in your last paragraph, well said.
Thanks for the blog Scchua
11ac. Editor asleep on the job?
14ac must be the clue of the week, possibly of the year. The surface could not be more accurate. The woman is also the embodiment of 16dn. Shame Vlad did not find room for the phrase ‘Failing Upwards’ as he would have had a complete description of Baroness Harding.
Petert @15. Yes, I agree with you that ‘qualified’ must be the anagrind in 5, 9 – the blogger has included it in the definition of ACE, but that leaves no indication that the anagrist needs to be rearranged.
Re 22across, blog amended.
Took quite a while sorting out FUCHSIA from my first preference for FREESIA, same kind of problem when trying to put in DAME instead of DIDO for 14ac. Then the final wrestle with the SE corner. Needed Scchua’s excellent as ever illustrated blog to lift the fog re the cluing of IOTAS and LIE DOWN. Rather need one of those last mentioned recoveries after what I found to be a difficult challenge today…
scchua – sorry, just to let you know that you have missed a bit in the clue for 26a: you have written ‘Is one originally maintained?’, missing out ‘it as’. The full clue should read ‘Is it as one originally maintained?’
Thanks sheffield hatter for pointing it out. Pressed one button short when doing a copy-and-paste. Blog corrected.
I usually find Vlad to be the most difficult of the regulars, with his cleverly disguised definitions and imaginative charade wording (“completely lost”, “before leaving”!). However the top half went in very easily for me today – false optimism because the bottom half gave me much more trouble.
Great use of a rather depressing theme; 14ac is pure genius.
Thanks to Jim T (is the poster by that name our vampiric setter?) and scchua
Plea to Crossword Editor – there has been a trend recently to pair Tramp and Vlad on successive days. I think they are too similar in style and whilst this results in two days of ecstatsy for some, for many others it is two days of shoulder shrugging and a half empty grid.
CRAVAT … I just “picked up” my pen and I it doesn’t appear to have reversed in any way. I don’t have a bow or an arc to hand but I assume they wouldn’t reverse either. I can see the attraction of the fake homophone indicator but really? And a “possible alternative” referring to something in the middle of the wordplay. Give me strength!
That’s enough grumbling from me for one day!
Didn’t do very well today and have never heard of Dido Harding. To me Dido was the queen of Carthage. Or the pop singer. But it was enjoyable nonetheless.
Thanks (I think!) to Vlad and certainly to scchua for explaining many of the puzzle’s mysteries.
Cruel but fair: I agree with those who’ve hailed both DIDO HARDING and BARONESS as splendidly accurate surfaces. A career in blue chip names but not much to be proud of. I believe she was a half decent jockey.
Rather a lot of bung and pray today and needed the blog to understand some of the slightly tortuous parsing. One of those where the theme did help populate the grid with answers – but then left me with the task of deciphering afterwards which I didn’t manage on several occasions. I also managed to extract HERA from 24ac (it’s just two letters earlier than RANI and found by exactly the same wordplay) and confidently entered it, which held me up for some time.
No one else has mentioned this yet so I ask with some trepidation: is there something awry with the blog’s explanation of DATA BREACH? For a start, rank is the anagrind rather than part of the anagrist and the “Defn: … for computerised sexual .” makes no sense to me. Am I missing something plain to everybody else? It’s happened plenty fo times before!
Thanks Vlad and scchua
[I am wondering whether the clue to 10a refers to the Queen of Carnage’s hand in the Cheltenham Festival fiasco]
I found most of this fairly straightforward by Vlad’s standards, except for one thing. I generally look at the last down clues first – they often seem to be easier – and my FOI was HERA at 24 rather than RANI (at least as good an answer, in my view). With DIDO and PROSERPINE following quite quickly I suspected a theme of classical queens and this held up a couple of others in that corner.
Agree with others about “stay”
Sorry, PostMark. The original post was “… for computerised systems”. “sexual” from the preceding comment somehow got in when I was correcting the numeration for 22across. Blog corrected to what it was.
Didn’t do too well with this but I did get 14ac, one of the cleverest clues in a long time.
I agree with bodycheetah, minty, Gervase and others. The top half fell into place without too much trouble and with the theme revealed, I thought that I’d walk the dog before polishing off the rest. Getting to the end was then a bit of a slog. Vlad can be relied upon to remind us that there is always someone cleverer and more knowledgeable, but that doesn’t matter, since it’s not what you know, but who you know. Unfortunately, I don’t know anyone either.
scchua @34: glad it wasn’t me, then, and, if it happened when you made an edit, I can see why 30 odd other commenters failed to mention it. I think the anagrist element for the same clue still needs to be corrected. Sorry.
Thanks to Vlad for what would be a very amusing puzzle were it not so near the awful truth. I, rather worryingly, got FETISH and STWEARDESS very early on, followed closely by STAY AT HOME, which opened up the theme, helping the remainder to fall into place quite neatly. I did, however, spend too much time caught up with ‘bungling’ and missed the alliteration in 25a, so thanks to scchua for clearing that one up. I agree with PostMark that the blog for 22a is a puzzle in itself.
Well sorry to disagree with everyone but I just lost interest and walked away as soon as I saw the theme. Politics are not what I want when I’m looking to relax with a crossword and a cuppa. Guess I must be in the wrong place as so many others loved all the digs. Each to their own.
Thanks PostMark@37 Noted, action taken.
Very meaty as I expected, but enjoyable because of that. I liked the political references, as ever, with their focus on the ridiculous and on failures.
The double ‘stay’ was an unexpected blemish in an otherwise praiseworthy puzzle.
I have visited Proserpine in Queensland (which has a small airport serving Airline Beach), but I had no idea until today that she is the equivalent of Persephone. Something learned.
Thanks to Vlad and scchua.
Vlad, you are my new hero! 25a is pretty good (and accurate), but14a is a work of genius. £12 billion spaffed, and counting.
trishincharente @39 you’re not alone. There is plenty of political content to be had elsewhere in the Guardian. I don’t like to see it so blatantly displayed in the crossword – especially at the expense of clueing accuracy. A certain other broadsheet does not allow references to living individuals like this.
Your explanation for 13d is incorrect. It is an anagram of S, one, and Ripper. The Roman numeral 1 is not in the anagram as you say
Thanks Edward Foster. 15down, I’m having a bad hair day! Blog corrected.
The top half, roughly down to the dreadful Dido (by which I do not mean a dreadful clue), simply flowed in. Vlad going soft, I wondered? Not a bit of it.
The bottom half was like drawing teeth. Didn’t help myself by mis-spelling PROSERPINE as Prosperine, but that got fixed eventually thanks to DATABREACH – I work from the paper so I want an extra brownie point for that one. No, clues like those leading to ITERATION and IOTAS might as well have been written in Sanskrit for all the sense they made to me.
All this is a great shame for I think it’s absolutely right that from time to time a Guardian setter takes aim at this disgraceful shower of nest-featherers masquerading as a government. A bit of accessibility when it does would be no bad thing.
Superb crossword and topical theme. Loved 14A across although on my first run through the across clues, I assumed (for sloppy but obvious reasons) that it would be MATT HANCOCK… I didn’t put it in because I couldn’t parse it. Many thanks to scchua for parsing RANI – got the answer but the clue was better than I thought. Also, many thanks to Vlad – a great end to the week.
Apart from the repeat of “stay” in 11ac I don’t understand the blog’s reference to “in one’s house”. The clue has “at the moment”. What’s the connection?
Thanks Vlad and sschua. One minor quibble with the blog. I had Damnation = hell. No need for the subsidiary(?) meaning of venting frustration or anger.
jeceris @48
“in” means “at home” – quite common incrosswords.
jay @ 43 – Araucaria’s crossword about jeffrey Archer is largely held up to be one of the master’s finest moments.
I can understand some folk thinking the theme to be a bit too near the nerve (I’m not one), but I do like setters’ freedom to include people who haven’t shuffled off just yet. It allows the puzzles to feel contemporary and relevant.
Too tough for me today, but lots of fun along the way.
Thank you Jay@43. Glad to know there are two of us at least.
MarkN @51 I completely respect your view. I’d love to see (and attempt) that Araucaria puzzle, is there any way you could link it?
This would have been one of my crosswords of the year because of all the clever political stuff. But then 11 across spoiled it all, with STAY in the clue and answer, which just isn’t done.
So close to a big win and then at the last minute, rather like the other Dido, waving the White Flag.
Jay @ 53
https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/22103
Jeremy Nicholas @54: Absolutely. 14ac is a work of genius, and to surround it with EPIDEMICS, a protection scheme in tatters, CRONYISM, DATA BREACH and Bungling Boris (for once I will forgive the use of the matey-chummy-cuddly name for the horrible man)…
And then we have 11ac which is just plain clumsy – and, as muffin @2 points out, unnecessarily so because “keep safe” would have worked just as well.
And on top of that we have “rank” in both 22ac and 17dn, which again feels clumsy.
Proxime accessit, as the horrible man would say.
Thank you muffin @50.
I understand the “in”. It’s the “at the moment” that bothers me.
Perhaps it should be underlined as part of the defence.
*definition of course
Yes jeceris. “at the moment” is a bit odd, but definitely not part of the wordplay, so it must be intended as part of the definition.
…in fact it looks like an early draft of the clue that evaded polishing!
Good bit of satire from Vlad – always happy to finish one of his puzzles without teeth-gnashing and wailing.
Only thing I didn’t like was STAY AT HOME also having two ‘at’s in the clue. Felt a bit clunky.
Thanks scchua and Vlad. This was enjoyable but tough! A DNF for me. As per Trailman@46, I could not make sense of 26A and bunged in an unparsed ICTUS, which sort of fitted the theme.
NeilH @56: I was inclined to cut Vlad some slack on the double use of ‘rank’. Whilst ‘stay’ means exactly the same thing in both clue and answer and is rightly criticised, ‘rank’ is used in two very different meanings – as taxi pick up spot in 22ac and as either gambling company or critical adjective in 17dn. It’s also the anagrind in the first and the definition – but also a potential misdirect anagrind in the second.
jeceris @57: I agree with you ‘in the moment’ is part of the definition and should be underlined. ‘in’ then provides ‘at home’ and ‘support at first’ provides ‘stay’.
Toughish, but worth it for the DIDO HARDING clue. Like bodycheetah@8 I find Vlad’s clueing rather contrived, but it’s all part of life’s rich tapestry I guess – the clues of different setters have completely different auras about them. Couldn’t parse a few. Besides Dido I like FETISH. Thanks to Vlad and scchua.
muffin @69 & 70: apologies. I started my reply to NeilH and to jeceris when the post numbers had reached 58. Was interrupted by a phone call and then hit Post. You had covered off the point in the meanwhile. I agree it could be an early draft: ‘at the moment’ could be dropped entirely and a link word like a but, yet or whilst would probably have done the job.
muffin at 59 and 60 obviously. Younger than I thought.
[drofle @64 – could you clarify your penultimate sentence?]
Very late to the party today – I was off for a rare lovely day out (to Leamington) before the blog was posted.
Vlad’s brilliantly topical puzzles these days have me laughing and weeping in practically equal measure and this was no exception. I’m sorry that their ephemeral nature precludes many of the clues from my little book of classic clues – I need to start (belatedly) a book of classic puzzles.
I have carefully, I hope, read all the comments (up to 63 at the time of writing) and I’m in total agreement with Trailman @46 and MarkN @51 in their response to Jay @43. I’m totally with Shirl @6 and bodycheetah @8.
As always with Vlad, I have many ticks (NOOK, IOTAS, CASTRO,CHOSEN) but, of course, top marks go to the stunning DIDO HARDING, BARONESS and ITERATION.
Huge thanks, as ever, to Vlad and thanks to scchua for the blog.
[Eileen @ 68 – Glad you enjoyed Leamington. It’s where I’m typing from right now. It is a lovely place, even in the current circumstances 🙂 .]
[MarkN – good to hear from you! I’m less than an hour away, in Leicester, but haven’t been for about twenty years – a lovely place, indeed.]
SimonS@55, many thanks!
I was another HERA. I wondered if others had been misled in the same way. Both answers are equally good, I think.
I was quite pleased with myself for solving 14ac, even though (a) I had never heard of Dido Harding and (b) I hadn’t solved 17dn, so I didn’t know the definition was BARONESS. I followed the instructions in the wordplay, decided that must be the answer, and was astonished when Google told me that there actually was such a person.
I found this puzzle fairly hard, but very satisfying when completed. I particularly enjoyed the well-hidden definition in 26ac (IOTAS) and the compact construction and excellent surface of 12ac (BRIO).
[MarkN @69 and Eileen @70: what I envy you both for having in common is the excellent vegetarian Indian restaurant Kayal. A too rarely visited favourite. Speaking, that is, only an hour from Leamington in the other direction; I’m near Worcester. Funny – I am always struck by the internationalism of the community here and enjoy regularly conversing with Australians (and Tasmanians), North Americans, Italians, Spanish and others (not forgetting those in mighty Finland of course 😀 ). It’s rather nice to suddenly find myself also aware of a little Midlands community. For some reasons I suspect Pauline in Brum might not be far away.]
I gave 14a three ticks – utterly brilliant and so, so apt.
Thanks to scchua & Vlaf
Re location – I am in Lichfield
I enjoyed this puzzle very much, though at first glance it seemed impenetrable. ‘Accomplished nothing’ combined with a four letter word was an obvious way in, from which point, as Eileen correctly says, it was a matter of “laughing and weeping in practically equal measure”. I feel some sympathy for trisincharente @39 (in so far as I can sympathise with someone of those political leanings), but I have to say “what do you expect”? This is the Guardian after all. Getting on the same wavelength as the setter is one of the joys of crossword solving, and if the setter is holding back on their inner beliefs, how close are you going to get?
I really liked “Bungling Boris” for not meaning what it seemed to mean (perhaps trisincharente didn’t get that far?), and MISSION for the innovative way that ION was clued. Sympathy for those who had HERA instead of RANI, but you’ve got to have some crossers before you write those little words in!
PostMark @73
Wow! Kayal is the longstanding venue for meetings of the East Midlands Consortium (Bert and Joyce (Indy bloggers), Kathryn’s Dad and Conrad Cork (regular commenters) and myself, who have organised a number of Midlands S and B gatherings (and nametab has been at those, too). Let’s hope we can have another one soon. 😉
Absolutely superb, not just because of the topicalities!
How good are IOTAS and ITERATION, for example.
The oversight in 11ac cannot change my (actually, our) verdict.
Best crossword of the week.
Hi sheffield hatter @76 (belatedly) – we crossed and I agree with you totally.
And I’m with Sil, too, re 11ac.
Came to this very late today but well worth the wait. What a splendid crossword.
11ac STAY in the clue held me up for a while and I kept expecting TALK (TALK) in the grid.
Story in Independent says Lord Bethel (health minister) and Dido are known as Laurel and Hardy to senior civil servants. It would be funny if it weren’t so serious.
Sheffieldhatter@76. With respect, I was not aware that I expressed my political leanings. Yes, I did get as far as Bungling Boris, and actually, if it matters, I am no fan of Mr Johnson or his government. I merely stated that I prefer no politics of any hue with my crossword. As has already been mentioned, there is plenty of room elsewhere in the Guardian for political comment. I absolutely appreciate Vlad’s skill as a setter, but this one just wasn’t for me. That’s all.
Muffin@67 – Er, yes, I now see that my comment was open to multiple interpretations. It certainly wasn’t admiration for the Baroness, but for the clues for DIDO HARDING and for FETISH. Better leave it there, rather than get into other possible interpretations . . .
Thanks to scchua for the customary colourful bog and to others for their comments.
Apologies for the early enumeration error at 22 and the repetition at 11. Meant to write ‘keep safe’, as muffin@2 and others suggested, and failed to spot that I hadn’t. The ‘at the moment’ part of the definition, was intended to signify a temporary state of affairs (hopefully not wishful thinking).
Thanks for dropping in, Vlad. I hadn’t spotted scchua’s colourful bog 🙂
Is ‘mad’ really a heightened state from ‘angry’?
We only completed the puzzle late last night. Eileen had given us the ‘heads-up” about the fact she was going to add something about the comment no 73. We would just like to reinforce her remarks!
An enjoyable solve too, so thanks Vlad and we did notice the repetition at 11 which threw us.
Thanks scchua – lots of comments yesterday, your inbox must be overflowing.
[muffin @84 – you beat me to it…
Took me two full days to finally finish this – guess I might be in the minority here, but I have to say that I did NOT enjoy it. Nothing to do with politics or the theme; I just thought that too many clues had parsing that was just too obscure. Definitely did not like the “STAY” thing.
Oh well….
Lots of people have mentioned STAY in the clue and STAY in the answer – but what about the ATs (2 in the clue plus 1 in the answer)?