Independent 10,961 by Eimi

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[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here

Eimi provides our Monday challenge today. Those who don’t enjoy political comment in their crosswords may want to give this one a miss.

I think it’s fair to say that Eimi isn’t a fan of our current PM and his friends in government. There are many disapproving references here to recent actions of Boris and co, in particular 8a and 26a referring to an infamous speech he made last week. I suppose it’s easier to get topical references in quickly when you’re the paper’s crossword editor as well as one of its setters.

I can’t quite work out the parsing for 8a: it’s a great clue but something seems to be missing from the wordplay. However, that may be my mistake and I’m willing to be corrected. UPDATE – see below.

There are some excellent (and topical) surfaces here, particularly 10a and 7d. If there were a prize for creating a long and clumsy sentence to cover a mere four letters, 23d would win it, but it’s actually quite a neat reversal. I don’t even want to think about the surface of 6a. Thanks Eimi as always.

Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.

ACROSS
6 PHLEGM
Self-possession of prime minister, concealing hard-on (6)
PM (Prime Minister), containing (concealing) H (hard) + LEG (on, in cricket terminology = the side of the wicket at which the batter stands).

Phlegm = calmness or composure = self-possession.
8 PEPPA PIG
CBI role model apparently giving high spirits to a bit of a tit in Government (5,3)
PEP (high spirits, as in “pep up” = enliven) + PAP (nipple = part of the breast = bit of a tit) + G (short for Government). But we also need an I before the G, and I can’t see where that comes from. (It might be the first letter of “in” but there’s nothing to indicate that.) UPDATE: As Tatrasman @1 points out, IG may be short for “in government” – but that seems rather obscure.

Extended definition: a reference to Boris Johnson’s recent speech at the CBI Conference, where he spent some time talking enthusiastically about the cartoon character Peppa Pig as an example of a successful business.
10 MAY AS WELL
Johnson’s predecessor a fashionably-dressed person? Why not? (3,2,4)
MAY (Theresa May, Boris Johnson’s predecessor as Prime Minister) + A SWELL (a fashionably-dressed person).
11 LARD
Fat boy suppressing resistance (4)
LAD (boy), containing (suppressing) R (scientific symbol for electrical resistance).
12 EFFUSION
English fellow getting reaction for unrestrained outpouring in speech (8)
E (English) + F (fellow) + FUSION (type of nuclear reaction).
13 SEWER
One working on material through which Johnson led his MPs, according to Starmer (5)
Double definition. One who sews = works on material; or a reference to a recent speech by Sir Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition, suggesting that the PM is “leading his party through the sewers” with his cavalier attitude to standards.
15 LABOUR
Party happening at the end of term? (6)
Double definition, the second cryptic. The political party Labour; or childbirth = what happens at the end of a pregnancy term.
17 PROZAC
In favour of person ennobled by Boris providing drug (6)
PRO (in favour of) + ZAC (Zac Goldsmith, Government minister given a life peerage by Boris Johnson).

Brand name for fluoxetine, an antidepressant drug.
19 LEEDS
Begins news bulletin on the radio with place fast trains won’t reach (5)
Homophone (on the radio) of LEADS (a news item “leads” when it’s the first item featured in a programme).

Reference to the Government’s recent changes to plans for the HS2 high-speed train service; the proposed eastern section connecting the Midlands to Leeds will no longer be included.
21 CITY HALL
Terribly chilly at Mayor of London’s place (4,4)
Anagram (terribly) of CHILLY AT.

Current headquarters of the Greater London Authority, including the Mayor of London, though they’ll soon be relocating to another building to cut the rent bill.
24 MIEN
Ungenerous-sounding manner (4)
Homophone (sounding) of MEAN = ungenerous.
25 PANTOMIME
Farcical situation originally mentioned in Tom Paine treatment (9)
First letter (originally) of M[entioned], in an anagram (treatment) of TOM PAINE.
26 FORGIVEN
Govern if flustered, as Johnson repeatedly asked to be (8)
Anagram (flustered) of GOVERN IF.

Another reference to the speech already mentioned in 8a, in which Boris apparently lost his place in his notes and repeatedly muttered “forgive me” as he tried to sort himself out.
27 FAT CAT
Wealthy businessman‘s oversized Jaguar? (3,3)
FAT (oversized) + CAT (for example a jaguar – the animal, not the car).
DOWN
1 SHAMEFUL
False fuel supply, which is scandalous (8)
SHAM (false) + anagram (supply = in a supple manner = flexibly) of FUEL.
2 SEE YOU
Farewell letters read aloud (3,3)
Homophone (read aloud) of the letters C U.

Informal expression meaning “goodbye”, perhaps short for “see you later”; similar to French au revoir or German auf Wiedersehen, or similar expressions in other languages.
3 SPLEEN
Peevishness observed about Poland (6)
SEEN (observed) around PL (ISO 3166 country code for Poland).

Spleen = peevishness = anger or irritability.
4 KARL BENZ
Banker confused about line supported by unknown carmaker (4,4)
Anagram (confused) of BANKER around L (line), with Z (mathematical symbol for an unknown quantity) at the end (at the bottom or “supporting” in a down clue).

German automotive engineer, as in Mercedes-Benz.
5 PIERCE
I creep terribly as ‘Tory Boy’ Andrew (6)
Anagram (terribly) of I CREEP.

Andrew Pierce, journalist and right-wing political commentator.
7 MUSTIQUE
Do I have to question European Union about Caribbean holiday destination? (8)
MUST I (do I have to . . .?) + Q (question), then EU (European Union) reversed (about).

Yet another Boris Johnson story: he took a holiday in a luxury villa on Mustique and was somewhat vague about whether or not a Tory donor friend paid for it.
9 PALS
Beneficiaries of sleaze initially profited, accumulating large sums (4)
Initial letters of P[rofited] A[ccumulating] L[arge] S[ums].

Sleaze = slang for corruption in government, specifically allowing one’s friends to gain an unfair financial advantage.
14 WRITE-OFF
Sardonic nob said to be a hopeless case (5-3)
Homophone (said) of WRY TOFF = sardonic nob (upper-class person).
16 BADINAGE
Frivolous repartee unwelcome in time (8)
BAD (unwelcome) + IN + AGE (time).
18 CUL DE SAC
Copper led around small account, but it’s a dead end (3,2,3)
CU (Cu = chemical symbol for copper, from Latin cuprum) + anagram (around) of LED + S (small) + AC (short for account).

A road closed to traffic at one end; from the French for “bottom of a bag”. I think it’s more often written as “cul-de-sac” with hyphens, rather than as three separate words.
20 EDITOR
Dacre perhaps somehow tried to take in head of OFCOM (6)
Anagram (somehow) of TRIED, taking in the first letter (head) of O[fcom] (short for the Office of Communications = regulatory authority for broadcasting, telecoms and post).

Perhaps Paul Dacre, former editor of the Daily Mail; he applied to be head of OFCOM but didn’t get the job. It’s a long story.
21 CANONS
Clergymen producing church decrees (6)
Double definition. A clergyman on the staff of a cathedral; or a church decree regarding morals or religious practices (canon law).
22 HEISTS
First among the man’s crimes (6)
IST (1st = first) inserted into (among) HE’S (the man’s = the man is).
23 SPIV
People in COVID contract fast lane upset person who usually cashes in unscrupulously (4)
VIPS (companies given fast-track “VIP” contracts to supply equipment and services for the Covid-19 response; allegedly many of them were run by friends of the Conservative MPs who nominated them), reversed (upset = upwards in a down clue).

Spiv = slang for a “dodgy dealer” or black-market trader.

27 comments on “Independent 10,961 by Eimi”

  1. I couldn’t really see how 8A worked either, though I’ve just found that the website AllAcronyms.com shows IG = In Government well down the list. For some reason, I got nothing until the bottom half, then the top half slotted in nicely. Good to see the boss keeping his/her hand in. Thanks Eimi and Quirister.

  4. Tatrasman @1, James @3: thanks for the suggestions. Either explanation is possible, but I’d suggest both are somewhat obscure. Perhaps Eimi will drop in to let us know what he meant.

  5. Fun little crossword today. We don’t mind a bit of political commentary in our puzzles although our German half was at a bit of a detriment due to avoiding much of the news for the sake of her mental health! So very much a team effort. Thanks Eimi and Quirister!

  7. Whilst I don’t have strong political leanings one way or the other – they’re mostly as bad as each other (it just becomes more apparent when they’re in government), I found the theme a bit intrusive today. And, without it, would PALS have been a reasonable solution to “beneficiaries of sleaze”? “‘Tory Boy’, Andrew” also seems rather weak and, again, heavily reliant on the theme. And “Begins news bulletin on the radio…” seems a clumsy way to signal a homophone of LEADS. EFFUSION and WRITE OFF were nice but, as a whole, this one didn’t really do it for me.

    Nonetheless, thanks Eimi and Quirister for the blog.

  9. Very clear what Eimi’s opinion of BoJo & Co is, and I can understand how some will find the theme intrusive, but I enjoyed the satire and also thought it well clued if not particularly difficult.

    For 8A I took a bit of a tit to be PAPI(lla), although that’s slightly loose clueing, and not 100% accurately defined, worth it for the surface and the whole clue though.

    Thanks Eimi and Quirister.

  11. Great start to the week. I’ll take any amount of political comment in my crosswords, especially when aimed at the current batch of – well, what Eimi said. And all at a Monday level of difficulty.
    I parsed if at 8a as in government, for what it’s worth, but I like the idea of the poetic i’ , James @3.
    The wry toff was my favourite. Thanks to Eimi and Quirister.

  12. This was a good laugh, even though I couldn’t parse either 8a or 23d and I am not much the wiser about either of these having read the review and various comments.

    WRITE-OFF was my favourite.

    Thanks to Eimi and Quirister.

  14. Thanks to Quirister and the commenters

    To clear up the 8A query, my intention was PEP PAP I’ G – some may be unhappy with I’ but I often allow the crossword equivalent of poetic licence in thematic clues (and I knew I could get this one past the crossword editor).

    To those who found the theme intrusive, that is the nature of the beast. Many of these words I could have clued differently (and better), but I wanted to mould them to the theme.

    I was going for humour rather than vitriol, although there is an underlying distaste with the man and his ministers. And pals refers to people such as the publican who hit Matt Hancock up on WhatsApp to get a PPE contract etc. And if the worst I can say about Johnson is that he’s ‘a bit of a tit’ I think he’s got off lightly.

    So enjoy, or not. Another crossword will be along tomorrow. And we all have more important things to worry about. Such as Omicron. Not the impact, but how to pronounce it.

  15. No problem with the i’ here – Shakespeare has many of them i’ faith.
    Thanks to Eimi for an enjoyable Monday outing and Quirister for the blog.

    By the way does anyone lnow why they went for Omicron?
    Did I miss Epsilon et al or is it just that it’s near enough to OMG?!

  16. I was intrigued to discover what would tempt our editor to pick up pen and paper when he usually just compiles for high days and holidays – PEPPA PIG apparently! The company responsible for same must now be giving thanks to our PM on a daily basis.
    Would have given top billing to MAY AS WELL had it not been for the fact that the expression used in the clue was invariably used to describe a member of the male sex so the honours go to WRITE-OFF.

    Thanks to Eimi and to quirister for the review.

  17. Thanks Quirister for a great blog and further commenters for the IG of PIG.
    reddevil@15 there have been a few variants that maybe were not as newsworthy as Omicron, see eg here:
    https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/variants/variant-info.html
    I did read somewhere that Xi had been ‘skipped’ so as not to offend the chinese president! It’s even harder to pronounce I reckon so probably for the best anyway.
    [jane@16, Boris is the pretty clear inspiration for the mayor of a fairy village in Ben and Holly’s Magic Kingdom, a cartoon by the makers of Peppa Pig, I wonder if his promotion of the latter is another example of the mutual backslapping that seems endemic to UK government?]
    Thanks for going to the trouble of summarising the omnishambles in a very enjoyable crossword form Eimi.

  18. Fair amount of discussion of why omicron and as Eimi observes more importantly how to say it on the Grauniad blog if anyone fancies a little more doomscrolling

  19. The bloated discussions on matters which have five-eighths of sweet FA to do with the crossword that are a constant feature of the blog in Another Place are the main reason that I won’t be doing doomscrolling or anything else over there. But I will drop in here to out myself as another one who liked this puzzle a lot. A bit of politics in a crossie from time to time never goes amiss.

    Thanks to the editor for this one and to Quirister for the blog.

  20. Thank you Eimi. I am totally happy with a bit of political commentary in a crossword and had a lot of fun with this.

  22. Where are the non-UK solvers today?
    I really expected to see some people here ‘complaining’ about the overdose of Britishisms (Paul Dacre? Andrew Pierce? Perhaps, even Keir Starmer?).
    Today’s FT setter sort of promised next time to write clues for a more international audience – that said, it’s the FT.
    Although it is nice to welcome people from all over the world to tackle crosswords, I must admit that I find comments on these Britishisms increasingly annoying. Actually, almost as annoying as Priti Patel.

    It’s clear that I am in the pro-camp as far as this crossword is concerned.
    The only clue that I found slightly dubious was SEWER (13ac), (a) because the Starmer comment is perhaps too specific, and (b) because of the unhelpful (and less than 50% checked) ?E?E?.
    My favourite was WRITE-OFF. Clever to have Boris in both the wordplay (wry toff) and the answer (write-off, not yet, though, as long as there are too many people happy with having a yo-yo journalist leading the country instead of a proper politician).

    Well done, Mike!
    And well done, Quirister!!

  23. This really lifted me up, for which i am extremely grateful. My kind of puzzle. Not overly difficult, but so much fun loaded with good surfaces. Brilliant! Thank you Eimi. You’re an inspiration. You’ll hear from me soon.

    Oh, and how could I not be flattered by 15a? I must be doing something right! (see independent 9465). This made my day too! I was massively encouraged to see my editor thinking similarly. no, there is no malice of any kind here, i am genuinely flattered.

    This puzzle has encouraged me to get back in the setting seat. I’ve been in a bad place. Eimi, thank you.

  25. @22 Sil – non-UK solver here! Sure, some of the britishisms were difficult for me and I don’t know the ins and outs of BoJo pro and con, but the puzzle had enough delightful clues that I was able to get through most of it, which is a good day. Didn’t have a prayer of parsing PEPPA PIG, but so be it. Enjoyed and learned; thanks to Eimi and Quirister!

  26. I stopped doing the Independent crosswords some time ago and look in occasionally to confirm my decision. The newspaper is called The Independent. But its crossword content, as here, would be at home in the gutter areas of twitter.
    The standard of clue is also poor. 13 and 19 across?? 23d?
    Well, Eimi, with you as editor I now understand why the quality of these crosswords is so patchy.

  27. We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars

    And I think The Independent cryptics are of a very high standard

    Non Compo mentis

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