This one took somewhat longer than usual but I think that was just me having an off day. Less than half done after an uncharacteristically long 30 minute first pass.
It didn’t start that way: Before I’d finished turning the page the very last clue 24D caught my eye and its solution was obvious before I had fished out my pen. Then the answers far left column (1 and 23/16) fell soon enough giving lots of first letters. But I ground to a halt with only most of the top left corner in, plus a smattering elsewhere.
I certainly needed the crossing letters to solve the last half dozen. I had been assuming 10/27 must be something FIRE, a long time before ENEMY was seen, and it was that assumed F and that R that helped pin down 26 SEMIFINAL and 29 NEUROSIS. 20d SPAMMER was particularly tricky, as was 15 MACABRE.
Favourite clue is certainly 7 BRUSSELS which was the penultimate and gave the final crossing letter for the final 17 TRUSS.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 8 | PRIORITY | Main concern is outrageous Tory rip-off, ’embracing independence’ (8) I[ndependence] inside (TORY RIP)* AInd: outrageous, or off – the clue would work without outrageous |
| 9 | MEMBER | What’s left, after getting married, for Dick? (6) M[arried] EMBER (what’s left – after a fire) |
| 11 | MOTH-EATEN | Rotten teeth on ma (decayed) (4-5) (TEETH ON MA)* AInd: Rotten or decayed. Alternatively the definition might be decayed and the anagram indicator rotten |
| 12 | ROOTS | Is encouraging bounders to protect Tory leader (5) T[ory] in ROOS (bounders – kangaroos) |
| 13 | NITPICK | Tip: when pissed and stuck in jail, complain (7) (TIP)* AInd: pissed, inside NICK (jail) |
| 15 | MACABRE | Grim mark of authority, seizing a ‘brother’ (7) A BR[other] inside MACE (mark of authority) |
| 16 | PERIL | Threat of Cyclops hacking computer language (5) I (Cyclops) inside PERL (computer language) |
| 17 | TRUSS | Boris colleague? Pack up (5) Double Definition. Ref. Liz Truss – known for her cheese sketch – sorry , speech. Last one in |
| 21 | LIGHTER | Fairer to take lead from scoundrel? (7) [b]LIGHTER |
| 23/16 | PLAYING POLITICS | Putting party’s interests before the electorate and collapsing – pity I snapped (7,8) (COLLAPSING PITY I)* AInd: snapped |
| 25 | TONER | Casual Blair’s cosying up to right is “cosmetic” (5) TONE (Tony casually) R[ight] |
| 26 | SEMIFINAL | Amin’s life: scattering big game (9) (AMIN’S LIFE)* AInd: scattering. Nice misdirection |
| 28 | CURATE | Minister (rogue!) put away (6) CUR (rogue) ATE (put away) |
| 29 | NEUROSIS | New non-British money is causing mental disturbance (8) N[ew] EUROS (non-British money) IS |
| Down | ||
| 1 | APEMAN | Escape Mandelson’s inner primitive being (6) Hidden in escAPE MANdelson |
| 2 | DICTATOR | Police backing rubbish alternative oppressor (8) CID< (Police, backing) TAT (rubbish) OR (alternative) |
| 3/19 | FREE PRESS | Trump’s hardly a fan of this liberal crowd (4,5) FREE (liberal) PRESS (crowd) |
| 4 | AT STAKE | In danger of being an heretical martyr? (2,5) Cryptic Definition/ Double Definition |
| 5 | TERRACOTTA | Potty material – Carter to a T, sadly (10) (CARTER TO A T)* AInd: sadly |
| 6 | ABSORB | A book on bastard Boris – one must go and suck up! (6) A B[ook] (BORIS – I)* AInd: bastard |
| 7 | BRUSSELS | In other words, the EU makes Boris’s and Trump’s countries less awful (8) BR and US (us and them countries) then (LESS)* AInd: awful. Top clue |
| 10/27 | ENEMY FIRE | Flak – Opposition gets sack (5,4) ENEMY (Opposition) FIRE (sack) |
| 14 | ILLITERATE | Ignorant of Dicky having stress (10) ILL (dicky) ITERATE (stress) |
| 18 | UNIONIST | Marriage: it’s out for the politician (8) UNION (marriage) (IT’S)* AInd: out |
| 20 | SPAMMER | Mailer‘s sperm shaken about in the morning (7) AM (in the morning) inside (SPERM)* AInd: shaken |
| 22 | GENTRY | Privileged people‘s unfinished convenience by railway (6) GENT[s] (convenience, unfinished) RY (railway) |
| 24 | GALOSH | Fergal O’Shea’s centre for waterproof footwear (6) Hidden inside ferGAL O’SHea. First one in as I spotted it as I turned the page to the crossword |
I was amused by Andy Zaltzman‘s take on Boris’s plans for the Irish border so that brexiters will be satisfied.
He extrapolated the idea of 2 borders for 4 years, through 1 border for 8 years, to a chap in a portakabin shouting “who goes there” for 100 years – whatever is mathematically the same. This was reduced to some kind of homeopathic border which has only some traces of the original border but only utter lunatics insist it works the same.
So the British government will appeal to smuggler’s sense of fair play, after all that’s essentially how corporate taxation works.
Thanks. 8a is tricky. I think the ‘off’, by virtue of the hyphen, binds only to ‘rip’. So you need another AInd, ‘outrageous’, to anagrammatize ‘Tory’. That potentially leads to a parse: anag(Tory) followed by anag(rip) — which clearly isn’t good enough. But if you then instead parse it as anag(Tory anag(rip)) — I think that does.
Thanks beermagnet. I enjoyed both 8a and 5d. 7d was also a good’un on reflection after seeing your comment.
lemming @1 your explanation works for me
Many thanks to both. I also had trouble getting round to ENEMEY in 10d which gave me some very improbable answers to 15a. But TRUSS was a pure guess as that degree of British politician knowledge is unknown out here. Should have googled I suppose. The rest was pretty standard fare and all the more enjoyable for that.
I enjoyed this one but it did take me longer as well. However, my solve time is counted in the form of hours (sometimes days!) and not minutes!!!!! I solve via the web and AccrossLite and got confused for some time by 10/27 due to the clue showing ‘oppostion’. That makes an anagram of the correct number of letters and ‘gets sack’ as the indicator. It took some crossers to convince me to look elsewhere!!!!
@Winsor: ‘oppostion’
https://i.imgur.com/BPB5Leu.jpg
I didn’t notice that – well spotted!