Nothing too difficult here; a pretty quick solve. Meanwhile, the FT seems to alternate between posting the puzzles days late or (as in this case) a few hours after midnight London time the day of publication.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | ACCOUNT A C (=Conservative=Tory) COUNT (nobleman) |
| 5 | TITIAN I (interest) in TITAN (superman) |
| 8 | LASSITUDE *(LADS USE IT) |
| 9 | ARROW BARROW (burial site) minus B (bishop). I initially questinoed the definition but it turns out that a “flight” is a type of arrow: a long, thin one designed to travel long distances |
| 11 | NOISY I (one) in NOSY (curious) |
| 12 | GALANTINE AN + TIN (element) in GALE (wind) |
| 13 | OVERTIRE OVERT (unconcealed) IRE (anger) |
| 15 | ABSEIL BSE (beastly disease) in AIL (sicken). To abseil is to descend (a cliff, for example) with a rope. Thus, one’s decline is “limited;” presumably, an unlimited decline would be a free fall |
| 17 | DESIRE DE (“of,” French) SIRE (father) |
| 19 | TAVERNER VERNE (French writer) in TAR (sailor) |
| 22 | IMPUDENCE IMPRUDENCE (thoughtlessness) minus R (right) |
| 23 | LAPSE homophone of LAPS (circuits) |
| 24 | ELOPE POLE (European) reversed + E (Spain) |
| 25 | POTENTIAL *(TO PIT LANE) |
| 26 | LESSOR LESS (short) OR (of gold) |
| 27 | DWELLER WELL (intimately) in RED (communist) reversed |
| Down | |
| 1 | ALL IN GOOD TIME ALL IN (exhausted) GOOD TIME (pleasure) |
| 2 | CASTILE *(ELASTIC) |
| 3 | UNITY UNIT (detachment) Y (fourth of July) |
| 4 | THUGGERY HUG (keep close) GE (IVR for Georgia) in TRY (attempt) |
| 5 | TREBLE TREMBLE (quake) minus M (millions) |
| 6 | TRAINABLE RAIN (bad weather) in TABLE (plateau) |
| 7 | AIRLINE dd |
| 10 | WHEELER-DEALER WHEELER (cyclist) + *(LEADER) |
| 14 | TIREDNESS *(DISSENTER) |
| 16 | TALENTED TALE (report) NT (Bible) ED (editor) |
| 18 | SUPPOSE S (son) UP (finished) POSE (model) |
| 20 | NUPTIAL UP (well-versed) in *(LATIN) |
| 21 | SNIPER SNIPE (bird) R (right) |
| 23 | LANCE hidden in unbaLANCEd |