to 2318: Groundwork
SOIL (9) — cryptically indicated by ISLAND IN THE SUN (1A), the title of a SONG (40) recorded by HARRY…
Portrait of the week
Home Philip Hammond, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, appeared to wrest control of plans for Brexit from cabinet rivals, while…
Playing chicken
Besides being important in themselves, the trade talks between Britain and the United States which began this week are symbolic…
Portrait of the week
Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, invited the media to take a photograph of her beginning a holiday with her…
Barometer
But me no butts Boris Johnson, being taught a Maori head-to-head greeting, joked that it might be ‘misinterpreted in a…
to 2317:370
The answer to the subtraction sum in the title is 1947. So all the unclued lights are celebrities who celebrate…
Letters
Bugs bite back Sir: Matthew Parris is quite right to say that we Leavers would prefer independence in reduced circumstances…
No. 2316: Divine alteration
Redundant words were 12A virgin, 16A crazy, 38A mammal, 18D state, 21D greed, 25D tendon, 34D extremist. These respectively defined…
Let May govern
It used to be said that loyalty was the Conservatives’ secret weapon. While other parties might descend into internecine warfare,…
Portrait of the week
Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, told MPs before the summer recess: ‘No backbiting, no carping. The choice is me…
Hope in Mosul
For the title of world’s most benighted city, Mosul takes some beating. Liberated from Saddam Hussein by US forces in…
to 2315: Trunk call
4, 40, 43, 1, 3, 16 and 17 were all examples of PORTMANTEAU words, into which are packed the sense…
Portrait of the week
Home In her first big speech since the general election, Theresa May, the Prime Minister, said: ‘I say to the…
Letters
Technical education Sir: I am grateful to Robert Tombs for highlighting the baleful use of ‘declinism’ as part of the…
Russia’s revolutionary soul
From ‘The Russian awakening’, 6 July 1917: M. Kerensky, the Russian Minister of War, has kept his word. He promised…
The beginning is nigh
Just a few weeks ago, the Conservatives triumphed in the local government elections and Theresa May was hailed as an…
to 2314: 4÷4=8
One of the unclued 4-letter lights is placed in the very middle of another to form each of the four…
Portrait of the week
Home Philip Hammond, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, urged colleagues to make the case for ‘sound money’; he said, ‘We…
Letters
The wrong choice Sir: Sebastian Vella’s new-found interest in politics is to be commended, but he has made the wrong…
to 2313: Goldfish
Extra letters in clues gave SAM GOLDWYN, to whom are attributed I’LL GIVE YOU (5) A DEFINITE (8) MAYBE (1A),…
Stronger together
There is unlikely to be much of a legacy from Theresa May’s premiership, which could yet be truncated a short…
Letters
The Tory quagmire Sir: While the media has been preoccupied in divining what went wrong with the Conservatives’ appalling election…
Portrait of the week
Home In preparation for the vote on the Queen’s Speech, the Government, after weeks of negotiations, bought the support of…
Opening gambit
The unexpected outcome of the general election has led some to hope that a weakened government will be forced to…
to 2312: Bandleader
The thematic BEATLES ALBUM (38 32) is SERGEANT PEPPER (1A 6A). 1A defines 17, and can be divided into words…
