Independent 11,746 by Tees

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A topical politically themed puzzle from Tees with lots of excellent clues.

There was just one clue which lost me completely.

ACROSS
1
See 23

6 LABOUR
Herculean task for party dominating ballot? (6)

DD referring to the Labours of Hercules
9 BLUE
Sad Tory (4)

DD
10 FORMULATED
Mortal feud ruinous — that’s expressed clearly (10)

(Mortal feud)*
11 DOLOUR
Party to scowl in misery (6)

Do(=party) + lour(=scowl)
12 STICKLER
Punctilious contender from left loading weapon (8)

L{eft} in sticker(=slang for weapon such as a knife)
13 PSYCHOPATH
Is it Chigurh blocking way with extremely scary axe? (10)

(S[car]y + chop(=axe)) in path. Chigurh was the psychopathic hitman in the film/novel No Country for Old Men.
16 OUST
Remove from office some unscrupulous Tories (4)

Hidden in unscrupulous Tories
17 CHAR
One must vacate seat daily (4)

Cha[i]r.
19 SCANDALOUS
Openly vile lad, as Con, failed us (10)

(Lad as Con)* + us
22 BASS VIOL
Victor in Lab is so composed, one taking bow (4,4)

V{ictor}(phonetic alphabet) in (Lab is so)*
24 COME TO
Speak fondly about London police? Wake up! (4,2)

Coo(=speak fondly) around Met{roplitan police}
26 SHAMEFACED
Sheepish press chief retaining honour after hoax (10)

(Ed(=press chief) around face(=honour)) after sham(=hoax). Face is a synonym for honour in the sense of saving ones honour/face.
27
See 14

28 CRUSOE
Conservative deception takes in old man, washed up (6)

C{onservative} + ruse(=desception) around o{ld}
29 LADDERED
Was leader over summer, having run (8)

Led around adder(=summer in a summing up sense). The def is in the sense of stockings.
DOWN
2 LOLLOPS
Clumsily runs poll in The Sun that’s sent up (7)

(Poll in sol)<
3 CREDO
Firm having to restrict Corbynite principles? (5)

Co{mpany} around red(=Corbynite)
4 INFERNO
Conclude negative vote leads to hellish place (7)

Infer(=conclude) + no(=negative vote)
5 NORMS
Standards of Lamont, St John-Stevas and Tebbit? (5)

DD, the second def referencing the fact that all the politicians are called Norman, which is sometimes abbreviated to Norm.
6 LOUTISH
Liberal excluded is hard and coarse (7)

L{iberal} + out(=excluded) + is h{ard}
7 BLACKPOOL
British have nowhere to swim, but big swing here? (9)

B{ritish} + lack pool(=have nowhere to swim). I'm not totally sure what the definition refers to – possibly the fact that it has a famous swing ride or a reference to its fame as a venue for music and dancing.
8 USELESS
Really poor — so save? (7)

DD, the first def referring to something being not very good rather than poverty-stricken.
14/27 CHRISTMAS TREE
Ethics with Starmer questionable — this under present burdens? (9,4)

(Ethics Starmer)*. The def is a reference to the custom of hanging presents on the tree.
15 ANA
Drama ending in this literary collection? (3)

Don't follow this.
18 HEATHER
Erica, a PM in 1970s, with monarch then (7)

Heath(=Ted Heath) + ER
19 SKIFFLE
Folk rock boat close to shore: 50 aboard (7)

(Skiff(=boat) + [shor]e) around l(=50 in Roman numerals)
20 DECIDED
Determined detectives brought into action (7)

CID in deed
21 UP THERE
Ill repute to beset Hancock, initially at the top? (2,5)

Repute* around H[ancock]
23/1 LOCAL ELECTION
In pub the Spanish notice flawed political process (5,8)

Local(=pub) + el(=the Spanish) + notice*
25 MATTE
Dull affair having no end (5)

Matte[r]

17 comments on “Independent 11,746 by Tees”

  1. I think 15d is just saying that DRAMA ends in ‘an A’. Also, add ‘literary’ to the definition.

  3. Agree with Hovis. AN A is the end of DRAMA ; ANA is a collection.
    I think the Blackpool swing refers to the percentage point change in the South Blackpool by election around a month ago after former MP Scott Benton had committed a misdemeanour and was forced to stand down.

  4. Hello 15 Squared. I’m an election freak who stays up all night when there’s a GE, and a lurker here. I’m in for the election run-in, as there are sure to be some fun puzzles on that theme in the press.

    I’ve assumed this is a local elections puzzle. Blackpool South was a by-election though, held on the same day (2 May I think) with Chris Webb winning after a massive swing to Labour, as Andrew and Flea have it. Tory Scott Benton had been suspended for offering lobbying services for cash, and subsequently resigned, triggering the BE. Really liked the Starmer one, for obvious reasons.

  5. Thanks Tees and NealH – Fun start to the week . I also missed the ANA parsing so thanks above.

  6. Well, there’s an Urdu drama called ‘Anaa’ on Pakistani TV, but perhaps someone could enlighten us as to which dictionary ‘Ana’ appears in to mean drama. Apart from this much enjoyed, so thanks Tees and NealH.

  7. Tatrasman @6 – ‘ana’ doesn’t mean drama, but it does end in AN A (and an ANA is a collection of anecdotes etc, according to Chambers at least).

  9. I did get ANA – but only with both crossers. It’s a word I’ve only encountered in its three letter form in crosswords though obv I’m familiar with Americana, Victoriana etc. I did have to look up Chighur to make sense of PSYCHOPATH. No particular favourite clue today but I did enjoy the overall surface theming.

    Thanks Tees and NealH

  10. I had to look up Chighur too, having read some Colm Toibin, but not that one. I have to be a good place to read his books, so wasn’t surprised when the clue resolved.

    I know ANA from crosswords, and meaning a collection, so entered that confidently. I also knew about the swing vote in BLACKPOOL

    Thank you to Tees and NealH.

  11. That was nice. Political without becoming controversial, lots of good stuff and not too tough for me.
    BLACKPOOL, you can just associate big swings with big dippers, big wheels, a tower and everything else. Works for me 🙂
    Thanks T and N

  12. First time commentor. I think 8a isn’t quite double definition… the second part is “so save?” Which I take to mean “use less”.

  13. Thanks both. Found this a bit quirky, but no harm in that e.g. that any of those referenced might be known as NORM or that we might know the character’s name from a single film, and I have no idea which ballot LABOUR is dominating, past present or future, but that is probably because I try to avoid all things politics, which necessitates a darkened room.

  14. Good cluing.. really enjoyed the Chighur reference both an excellent film n a pretty fine example of the word.. B-LACK POOL will be the way I’ll read it from now on… loved the Norms… 22ac had me searching for violinists with possibly Eastern European roots such as Olav Biss, before I got a couple of crossers in…
    thanks Tees n NealH

  15. Thanks Tees. Despite only having peripheral knowledge of British politics and elections I somehow managed to solve (but not fully parse) all of this except for LADDERED. (This can be a testament to good clue writing.) My top picks were CHAR, CRUSOE, LOCAL ELECTION, and MATTE. Thanks NealH for the explanations.

  17. I enjoyed this and liked the reference to No Country for Old Men, though until I had more crossers it looked like “ANTON” might sit in the middle of the answer as wordplay.

    Lots to enjoy and after a bit of headscratching over ANA I came to the same conclusion as those above on how it must work.

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