The green benches in the Palace of Westminster. Photograph: DIGITEYES/Alamy Crossword blog Cryptic crosswords for beginners: a little bit of politics Continuing our series for those who are tempted or daunted by cryptics, we explore abbreviations from the corridors of power

In the example clues below, I explain the two parts of each one. There is a definition of the answer and there is some wordplay – a recipe for assembling its letters. In a genuine puzzle environment, of course, you also have the crossing letters, which hugely alleviate your solving load. Also, here, the setters’ names tend to link to profiles of the individuals behind the pseudonyms.

I tend to think that if I’ve read much of the rest of the newspaper, I ought to know everything I need to solve the crossword. And one staple of the “news” sections that appears in the clues time and again is politics.

… for ENCAMP. Other words in clues that might indicate an MP in the answer are “representative” and, straightforwardly, “politician”. (And it should be noted that a “member” might equally indicate ARM, LEG and the rest of it.)

… for CONTENTION, and an opportunity to note that a “party” can of course also be LAB, just as a “prisoner” can be a different (unless you’re Jeffrey Archer) kind of CON.

What about, as they used to ask, the workers? Here’s Brendan …

… spelling it out as “organisation of workers” in a clue for STATUTES, but that abbreviation for trade union might equally be indicated by “workers”, just as those handy letter-strings NUM and NUT might cause there to be a “miners” or a “teachers” in your clue.

Nowadays, more often “old taxman”, since the Inland Revenue merged with HM Customs and Excise in 2005. So here’s Harpo with a clue …

… for TEDIOUS and a remark that the letter-string HMRC is much less useful to setters.

There’s really one revolutionary I think of straight away when I see that word in a clue. So it goes in this clue from Vulcan …

The Shipping Forecast Puzzle Book by Alan Connor, which is partly but not predominantly cryptic, can be obtained from the Guardian Bookshop.

Source: The Guardian

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