Cyclops has a swipe at all corners of the political spectrum this fortnight, and also finds time for a little self-reflection…
Do spectra have corners?…. Anyway, clue and solution material includes, from ‘Right’ to ‘Left’: Ronald T Dump and Rudy Giuliani; Reform’s Lee Anderson; Young Conservatives in general and the Conservative ‘Old Guard’; the Lib Dems’ Tim Farron; and the Labour donor LORD ALLI.
The French, Scottish and CAMBODIA all get mentions and, maybe serendipitously, given that this was in budget week, TAXABILITY is spot on time!
And Cyclops, ‘one who sets’ makes an appearance at 1D:
A smattering of smuttery – penetrates, pissed, a ‘happy ending’, ‘soft porn’ and a SPACE PROBE – caused a few ‘oo-err missus’ raises of the eyebrow, but nothing too extreme.
As usual, thanks to Cyclops for the challenge, and I trust all is clear below…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
||
| 7A | YARN | Rex penetrates any sort in Strand (4)
YA_N (anag, i.e. sort, of ANY) around (penetrated by) R (rex, king) |
||
| 8A | LOLLIPOP | One’s into lounge music? Sweet! (8)
LOLL (lounge, laze about) + I (one) + POP (music) |
||
| 10A | OLD GUARD | Conservative element getting on shelter (3,5)
OLD (getting on) + GUARD (shelter) |
||
| 11A | SOCIAL (MEDIA) | & 14dn. Party aimed to break up certain Internet sites (6,5)
SOCIAL (party) + MEDIA (anag, i.e. to break up, of MEDIA) |
||
| 12A | APATHY | Unconcern – one way to get ‘happy ending’ (6)
A (one) + PATH (way) + Y (end letter of happY) |
||
| 14A | METAPHOR | Pissed to hear PM’s conceit (8)
anag, i.e. pissed, of TO HEAR PM |
||
| 15A | EXTRADITION | ‘The kicking out of old lover’ convention (11)
EX (old lover) + TRADITION (convention) |
||
| 19A | CAMBODIA | A day in which ugly mob is protected by agents for the nation (8)
C_IA (agents, spies) around (protecting) A_D (A Day), itself around MBO (anag, i.e. ugly, of MOB) |
||
| 21A | MUESLI | Reflect aloud on having MP Anderson, reportedly, for breakfast? (6)
homophones, i.e. aloud and reportedly – to MUSE (reflect) on LEE (Anderson, Reform MP) could sound like MUESLI |
||
| 22A | FROLIC | Large immodest opening in short dress – what fun! (6)
FRO_C( |
||
| 23A | AGNOSTIC | Sceptic acting so crappily (8)
anag, i.e. crappily, of ACTING SO |
||
| 25A | UNTANGLE | Straighten out misshapen nut that’s on view (8)
UNT (anag, i.e. misshapen, of NUT) + ANGLE (view) |
||
| 26A | BENT (LAWYER) | & 9dn. Bowed and brief? Not Trump’s apparent view of Giuliani (4,6)
BENT (bowed) + LAWYER (brief) |
||
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
||
| 1D | CYCLOPS | One who sets police to nab young Conservative leaders at large (7)
C_OPS (police) around (nabbing) YC (Young Conservatives) + L (large) |
||
| 2D | PRIG | Wanker‘s “power tackle” (4)
P (power) + RIG (tackle, equipment) |
||
| 3D | LORD (ALLI) | & 23dn. Labour donor‘s roll laid out (4,4)
anag, i.e. out, of ROLL LAID |
||
| 4D | CLOSET | Cabinet fail in court (6)
C_T (court) around LOSE (fail) |
||
| 5D | SPACE PROBE | Crafty means of monitoring ‘unearthly’ activities (5,5)
punning CD – sending a SPACE PROBE craft up might help to monitor un-earthly activities |
||
| 6D | SPRAY-ON | Soft porn, say, is like a false tan? (5-2)
anag, i.e. soft, of PORN SAY |
||
| 9D | LAWYER | See 26ac. (6)
see 26A |
||
| 13D | TAXABILITY | Obligation to help fund the Exchequer causes stress, savvy? (10)
TAX (stress) + ABILITY (savvy, knowhow) |
||
| 14D | MEDIA | See 11ac. (5)
see 11A |
||
| 16D | TIMING | What’s the making of a good joke? LibDem leader, once in gaudy top (6)
TIM (Tim Farron, former Lib Deb leader, so ‘once’) + IN + G (top letter of Gaudy) |
||
| 17D | HAIRCUT | Bob, hot air hack? (7)
H (hot) + AIR + CUT (hack) |
||
| 18D | SLAINTE | Stalin’s wretched enemy’s head is toast! (7)
SLAINT (anag, i.e. wretched, of STALIN) + E (head, or first letter, or ENEMY) |
||
| 20D | DECENT | Befitting of French money (6)
DE (of, French) + CENT (money) |
||
| 23D | ALLI | See 3dn. (4)
see 3D |
||
| 24D | SPEW | Sick of Scottish head gaining seat (4)
S (head, or first letter, of Scottish) + PEW (seat) |
||
Thanks MC and Cyclops. I’m surprised Cyclops didn’t make more of 5d by referring to the other type of probe allegedly carried out on alien abductees, instead of the more gentle option we got. Looking forward to receiving Cyclops’ big one soon.
Thanks Cyclops and mc.
New for me metaphor = a conceit.
Cheers all.
Thanks Cyclops and mc_rapper67. I marked 1d as a favourite among many great clues.
It took me quite a while to properly parse 16d as I kept only thinking of the LibDem leader Ming.
There’s a new Private Eye crossword coming out later this week, of course. The usual Cyclops offering, but this one has a much appreciated input from a fellow setter – none other than the esteemed Guardian regular, Tramp (and Jambazi of the Independent, of course). I’d like to thank him in particular for the mini-theme idea and his clue to the long 3-word answer.
Well, that’s a bit of a teaser for you there: I hope it will whet the appetites of regular Eye solvers here and maybe even tempt other fifteensquared users to have a go.
Wow – teaser from the man himself!! Can’t wait, and I loved this puzzle. 14a and 6d were outrageously good anagrams – had me stumped for ages.
I’ve just picked up the latest copy of the Eye and I note that, unusually, it’s only out for a week, with the next issue due on December 19th. The closing date for the crossword has been brought forward to Tuesday 16th. Will the blog be appearing earlier as well?
Thanks for the comments so far – much appreciated, as usual…especially Cyclops for popping in with a little teaser…
(We normally rap people gently over the knuckles if they mention a ‘live’ puzzle, but given that he is the setter, and the puzzle mentioned wasn’t live at the time, I guess I can let him off…)
GuyBarry at #6 – my copy hasn’t landed on my doormat yet, but thanks for the heads-up…I will consult with Admin and my fellow blogger to see about publishing schedule adjustments.
(I guess that means that the next one will be the Xmas special…and will fall on my watch…)
11A in blog has a typo media s/b aimed*