A thoroughly enjoyable romp around the latest political shenanigans with Bluth. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but I loved it; and will warn you here that once Bluth had started to put the boot into the current occupant of Number Ten, I couldn’t hold back from giving him a further kicking when he was down. Mea maxima culpa. Not.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Squeezing party into lobby
PRESSURE GROUP
A charade of PRESSURE and GROUP for the organised lobbyists who may occasionally offer sweeteners or consultancies to MPs with no expectation of anything whatsoever in return.
8 Book in P.O. Box for corporation
POT-BELLY
An insertion of B for ‘book’ in PO and TELLY.
9 Shareholders’ meeting about opening in Europe is revealing prejudice
AGEISM
An insertion of E for the initial letter of ‘Europe’ and IS in AGM.
10 Room to manoeuvre in plan to control leak – on the contrary
LEEWAY
An insertion of WEE reversed in LAY. The insertion indicator is ‘to control’, the reversal indicator is ‘on the contrary’ and ‘plan’ is the thirteenth definition of LAY in my Chambers.
11 Not the first coppers to take on American style
ELEGANCE
Plenty of insertions this morning: this one is of LEG for the cricketing ‘on’ and A in [P]ENCE. The insertion indicator is ‘to take’.
12 Was Boris ignoring some court order
ASBO
Hidden in wAS BOris. Is there anything, including common decency, that Alexander can’t ignore? Sadly for future compilers, the Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) has now been replaced by the Civil Injunctions and Criminal Behaviour Order, which is a lot less helpful in setting clues.
13 Show contempt with barely legal breaking rules, Downing Street initially ignores
DISREGARDS
A charade of DIS, [L]EGA[L] inserted into two Rs for ‘rules’ and DS for the initial letters of ‘Downing’ and ‘Street’. The insertion indicator is ‘breaking’, and ‘barely’ tells you to remove the outside letters of ‘legal’. Brilliantly relevant surface, referencing what was quickly dubbed ‘Partygate’. ‘No rules were broken.’ No, of course not. Or maybe everyone was just too pissed to notice.
16 Model and I see sharp part of a soldier’s defence?
FORMIC ACID
A charade of FORM, I and C followed by ACID. ‘See’ to indicate the letter C is not one of my favourite constructions, but it’s widely used and accepted. The ‘soldier’ is of course the ant, and many species are able to spray FORMIC ACID as a defence mechanism. Today’s off-topic factoid is that the French word for an ant is une fourmi, which is related to this fact.
19 Up to work
TILL
A dd, with the second definition related to working the land.
20 With no energy at all, somehow become ace at vault
CATACOMB
Bluth is inviting you to remove all the Es from ‘become ace at’ and make an anagram (‘somehow’). So it’s (B[E]COM[E] AC[E] AT)*
23 Regularly touring act – he’s busy
ORNATE
The even letters of tOuRiNg AcT hEs.
24 Perhaps Sturgeon’s entertaining in conclusion
FINISH
An insertion of IN in FISH. The insertion indicator is ‘entertaining’.
25 Drew attention away from excited daughter wrapping present
UPSTAGED
An insertion of STAGE in UP and D. The insertion indicator is ‘wrapping’.
26 Number Ten okay about charlatanism
MOUNTEBANKERY
(NUMBER TEN OKAY)* A noun from MOUNTEBANK, for ‘a buffoon, a charlatan, a quack seller of remedies’ (Chambers). All of which could be used to describe the current inhabitant of Number Ten, our Great Leader. And liar. Another interesting piece of etymology: the word comes from the Italian imperative monta in banco! or climb on the bench! The allusion is to someone climbing onto a raised platform in order to address an audience with false promises. That’d be the platform in the new Number Ten briefing room, normally used by Boris, and where Allegra Stratton found it laugh-out-loud funny to practise her denials of work-related events that didn’t happen anyway.
Down
1 Demeanour of experts circulating mails to support admission of guilt for covering up deception
PROFESSIONALISM
Intricate but precise wordplay. Since it’s a down clue, ‘circulating mails to support’ tells you to do (MAILS)* and put it at the bottom; then you need to take CONFESSION for ‘admission of guilt’ and replace the ‘deception’ or CON with PRO for ‘for’.
2 Bowler moving lower, looking up 10 across
ELBOW ROOM
A charade of (BOWLER)* and MOO reversed. The anagrind is ‘moving’ and the reversal indicator, since it’s a down clue, is ‘looking up’. The solution to 10ac is LEEWAY, whence ELBOW ROOM. I am struggling a bit to exactly equate ‘lower’ and MOO. To MOO is to ‘low’, for sure; and a ‘lower’ is an animal that MOOS. But a MOO is only a cow in babyspeak, so I’m not sure if that’s what Bluth intended.
3 Climbing mountains outside of Yorkshire, 500 spread out
SPLAYED
A charade of ALPS reversed, YE for the outside letters of ‘Yorkshire’ and D for the Roman numeral.
4 Confusing her with my poem
RHYME
(HER MY)*
5 Clearing voyeur, essentially for suggestive look
GLAD EYE
A charade of GLADE and YE for the central letters of ‘voyeur’.
6 Cabbage-moth’s eating up last letter
OMEGA
Hidden reversed in cabbAGE MOth.
7 Lost cycling getting to grips with rules – in China it depends on where you live
POSTCODE LOTTERY
Again, intricate but precise. An insertion of CODE in (LOST)*, all inserted into POTTERY. You could also consider ‘cycling’ as asking you to put the L in ‘lost’ to the end. The two insertion indicators are ‘getting to grips with’ and ‘in’. If you were being cynical about the Tories’ levelling up policy, you could say that it was a POSTCODE LOTTERY, depending on whether the MP in whose constituency postcode you live is sufficiently brown-nosed and obeisant to be granted a place in the queue for the recycled money that is available.
14 Caesar’s so poorly, we hear
SIC
A homophone of SICK. SIC is the Latin word for ‘so’ or ‘thus’, as in – for example – sic transit gloria mundi. Or in directly quoting a mispelt (sic) word.
15 Become less dense and almost go to university at Cambridge finally
ATTENUATE
A charade of ATTEN[D], U, AT and E for the final letter of ‘Cambridge’.
17 Craft content to leave crabber throwing line out at the end
CROCHET
Some really good surfaces in this puzzle. A charade of C[RABBE]R, OCHE and T for the last letter of ‘out’. The OCHE (pronounced like a cockney version of the game played with sticks and ball) is the line behind which darts players must stand to throw in their attempt to get one hundred and EEEIGHTY!
18 Work on guilt after doctor visits
DROPS IN
A charade of DR, OP and SIN.
21 Budget supermarket left out Brussels for so long
ADIEU
A charade of A[L]DI and EU. So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, adieu … to you and you and you.
22 Spot bishop’s promotional copy
BLURB
A charade of BLUR and B.
Many thanks to Bluth for the start to the Indy week.
Very much enjoyed this. I have no issue with ‘see’ = C’, it is the third definition of ‘see’ in Chambers app, for example but agree that ‘moo’ for ‘lower’, rather than ‘low’ seems suspect. In 7d, I think ‘cycling’ should indeed refer to a cycling of LOST -> STLO rather than indicating an anagram.
Like Pierre and unlike Hovis, “see” = C brings me out in spots. I don’t understand why our language has spawned words for letters when the letters themselves will suffice in written English (except for crosswords of course 😉 ) and which are irrelevant in spoken English.
That apart and the use of “lower” to mean “moo” in 2d, this challenging and fun puzzle was quite a tour de force with PRESSURE GROUP, TILL, SIC and ATTENUATE my top clues.
MOUNTEBANKERY was a new word for me, but it is certainly apposite for the activities of the major perpetrator of our current political shenanigans.
Many thanks to Bluth and to Pierre.
It’s an interesting point you raise, Rabbit Dave. It has always struck me that I know how to spell all the words for the Greek alphabet and, more recently, when trying to learn Spanish, was greeted with a listing of spellings for their alphabet and yet I couldn’t spell much of our alphabet with any confidence. As you say, why should you need to spell them other than by the letter itself (in any language)? Nevertheless, accepted spellings do exist, such as ‘cee’ or ‘see’ for C.
I didn’t mean to start a conflagration about C=SEE. I wouldn’t say it brings me out in spots; it’s just I can’t think of an instance where I personally would ever want to use such a convention. But it’s useful for setters. A for ‘orses, and all that.
A heck of a lot to like in this, as is normally the case with Bluth. The clues to the long solutions are cunningly crafted, the surfaces are witty, and there are some lovely unexpected twists like ‘Caesar’s so’ for SIC, the removal of E’s to get CATACOMB and the use of Aldi.
But also a little bit of looseness: whilst I’m OK with ‘see’ for C, I share the quibble over MOO = lower, ‘Not the first coppers’ to indicate (p)ence is a tad ugly and, whilst I see it is in Chambers, I’m still struggling to equate ‘sin’ with ‘guilt’; doesn’t the first lead to the second (unless you’re PM, of course)? … and that’s Prime Minister, not PostMark!
One small correction to the blog, Pierre. In 1d it’s CONFESSION rather than CONFESS.
Thanks both
Really enjoyed this. Thanks S &B. Didn’t Alf Garnett frequently refer to ‘silly old moo’?
Enjoyed the crossword, and Pierre’s comment stirred some childhood memory, and inspired us to Google the Cockney alphabet which gave us a laugh, always nice on a Monday morning. Here’s a link
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockney_Alphabet
Great stuff as always from Bluth.
This is the first puzzle I’ve managed to solve in a while. Out of interest, did anybody ever get any feedback from the Arkadium folks about the very annoying you-have-to-scroll-to-read-the-full-clue interface?
Thanks Bluth and Pierre
How do you answer “How do you pronounce C?” on paper?
Ornate crossword. Commentary much appreciated. I liked 8a. I’ve been losing my corporation of late – trying to solve/parse the Indy crosswords – not to mention lockdowns and inflation in the Shaky Isles.
Another great Bluth crossword Thanks to him and Pierre
Thoroughly enjoyable as ever from Bluth and, Pierre, top blog! Couldn’t parse 11a: cricket will ever be my downfall. Thanks to both.
Just in passing, noticed that the right-hand column nearly spells “misled”….
Much enjoyed like most others. The only thing I don’t see (C?) is at 22D ‘blur’ = ‘spot’. Thanks Bluth and Pierre.
I always enjoy Fed in the Guardian and was happy to learn he’s Bluth in the Indie. I enjoyed this, especially the references to the Number 10 shenanigans – the comic’s gift that keeps on giving.
Panthes@7: thanks for the alphabet, unknown to me despite being born and bred in London.
Simon S@9: quite, and what about W? I don’t wonder why English has words for letters but rather why would you not since everything else — numbers, symbols, punctuation — is spelt out .
Thanks Bluth and Pierre for adding to the mirth.
Tatrasman, my Chambers has blur (n) an ill-defined spot or smear. It wasn’t familiar to me either.
I struggled in several places, and 5D was a new phrase to me, but an enoyable challenge.
I enjoyed this though the OCHE in crochet eluded me and seeing ELBOW ROOM and LEEWAY together meant I forgot to go back and fully parse the former. Great blog, too.
This is certainly better than the Guardian one.
LOWER looks wrong to me also, whilst I am okay with see=C. Someone said they could not think of the spellings of single letters in our alphabet and I am another, but I can’t think of a more obvious list for the setters to use. Perhaps it could be worked up and standardised for their use.
Thanks Pierre and Bluth loved the digs at our PM’s discomfort and found this much easier than usual for the “goodish” setter. Blur for spot was a umm ok it’s in the dictionary but moment.
Great! (crossword and blog). Quibbles about C or low/lower pale into insignificance beside the enjoyment at the expense of Bojo & Co.
Thanks for the comprehensive blog Pierre, always good to get some background on the less common words that pop up, also for explaining LEEWAY and ELEGANCE, and good summing up of Bluth’s style as “intricate but precise”. I had same justification as jmac for MOO, think it is pretty loose and it took a while to come to mind – is there any dictionary/ thesaurus support as Bluth is usually very good about that? Another very good crossword, thanks Bluth.
Thanks for the blog, Pierre. And for all the comments.
I’ll put my hand up and say that I think it’s simply a mistake on my part in 2D – it should simply have said ‘low’ not ‘lower’ but perhaps it slipped through for similar reasons to those posited by those kindly offering justifications for it.
Ta, all.