Daily Answers

1-across – What Scots eat is of poor quality, we hear : TATTIE

4-across – Fruit in two hands : PAWPAW

9-across – Cross about leading member of the Establishment : ZERO

10-across – Filthy talk male abandoned coming to the female domain : SUTHERLAND

11-across – Creator of Pluto — with money being spun! : DISNEY

12-across – Finish with nothing and grumble — you may have got the pip : ENDOCARP

13-across – Delight to be had for nothing in days gone by : PLEASENCE

15-across – The first person to settle in the West Country : SMEW

16-across – Wildly providing brief message that there’s nothing to worry about? : AMOK

17-across – Rate bacon bad on account of salt : CARBONATE

21-across – Sole clot messing about? He had a funny partner : COSTELLO

22-across – Don’t just nibble your food! : WOLFIT

24-across – A bit in the paper, one of about 2,000 Nelson was given? : COLUMNINCH

25-across – Huge agency makes a hospital suffer a setback : NASA

26-across – Evil place of illegal activity : SINDEN

27-across – Malodorous fluid in filthy place : STINKY

1-down – TV 6 : THEBILL

2-down – Ye began with this source of annoyance : THORN

3-down – Yeltsin getting drunk with no expense spared : INSTYLE

5-down – It’s continued with, after apologies have been given : AGENDA

6-down – Officers in prison keeping order with insects invading : POLICEMEN

7-down – Opportunity around end of summer for hay being left to dry? : WINDROW

8-down – It’s rotten chap that’s out to bend the rules : STRETCHAPOINT

14-down – A couple of brief illnesses bringing a complete change of mind : ABOUTTURN

16-down – Hot men embraced by a timid sort, inadequately : AMOROUS

18-down – Front feverish — foes finally within striking distance at Agincourt : BOWSHOT

19-down – Leaving party, dotty Irish drunk — not one needing a Guinness? : THIRSTY

20-down – Quiet organ before start of evensong : PLUNGE

23-down – Revolutionary leader gets churned up inside : LINEN

1-across – See 22 down : CROWFLIES

6-across – Bird magazine : TIME

8-across – Robin redbreast’s opening wings to accelerate, furiously flying : AIRBORNE

9-across – See 3 : EQUALS

10-across – Old publisher picks up on leader in Times : HEARST

11-across – Stone after May, the new birthstone for February : AMETHYST

12-across – Flower power, hugging resistance : STREAM

15-across – Star in girl here, you bet! : LASVEGAS

16-across – Prison bog aligned with one of 24’s characters, initially lacking : BELMARSH

19-across – Lib-Dem and Labour leaders arrested : NICKED

21-across – One’s bowled over by girl, a maiden in Madrid : SENORITA

22-across – Backplate for armadillo, perhaps? : ANIMAL

24-across – Author who’s more devious? : ARCHER

25-across – Straightening muscle enters ox with a bit jiggling : EXTENSOR

26-across – It is so amazing making egg noodles for starters : AMEN

27-across – Wet and naked, display rear in defiance and something on one’s finger : SHOWERING

1-down – Conservative potentate up for perjury, perhaps : CRIME

2-down – Tory author : OSBORNE

3-down – 24’s e-book? : FIRST

4-down – I ask to safeguard leaders in expedition, frozen in glacial collapse : ICEFALL

5-down – Some egoist, even so, notorious author : STEVENSON

6-down – Difficult problem for gangster : TOUGHIE

7-down – Drink uses fish : MILKSHAKE

13-down – Whistler constrained by impossible mother, leaving that place : THEREFROM

14-down – Planet going around like the sun, day approaching fast : MARDIGRAS

17-down – Bird — tailless bird in daydream : MOORHEN

18-down – Chuck contents of shoe, for the boot : HEAVEHO

20-down – Drink, one in tune with Italy : CHIANTI

22-down – 24’s going straight? : ASTHE

23-down – See 3 : AMONG

5-across – Mount watch in case : HUNTER

6-across – Assist business to mail packages : SECOND

9-across – Strong shock when heart’s bypassed in power cut : OUTAGE

10-across – Like bad jokes, limited supply left to crack : ILLTIMED

11-across – Current changeover : TIDE

12-across – English bird is circling moor for endless periods : ETERNITIES

13-across – 8, for instance, discussed vetoed editorials : BANDLEADERS

18-across – Teams got rid of injured wings, perhaps : SIDESWIPED

21-across – It’s touch and go : MOVE

22-across – John Gay’s overly evid­ent in Amazing Grace : COTTAGER

23-across – Peer into the unknown twice per annum : YEARLY

24-across – Jock’s cross, forgetting Latin work by Juvenal, say : SATIRE

25-across – Hurry to develop a proposal for it : COMEON

1-down – Old South American artist hosts writer privately : INCAMERA

2-down – Cut power escaping from exhaust : DELETE

3-down – Row during late duke’s set : DECLINED

4-down – He believes in one being sweaty around noon : MONIST

5-down – Mingling with these beauties, Ali could be hilarious : HOURIS

7-down – Rushdie’s eloquent about this source of power : DIESEL

8-down – [See preamble] : TIMEKEEPERS

14-down – Does regular income protect royal widows? : DOWAGERS

15-down – A politician is furious defending riots : RAMPAGES

16-down – Big shop stocks an assortment of iron keys : MINORS

17-down – Old gardener’s extremely lonely in flat : EVELYN

19-down – Assess writer’s lost property : ESTATE

20-down – Anybody swimming anonymously doesn’t board : DAYBOY

1-across – Perhaps a few nods welcome the return of agreement in that poet­ical subject of uncert­ainty : THEAKONDOFSWAT

9-across – Left admits Palestinians getting abused : EXPLOITED

10-across – Compiler’s rights to unwrap the third gift : MYRRH

11-across – Hourly hospital examination : HORAL

12-across – Scholar to get creative here : ARTSCHOOL

13-across – Lives eating university leftovers : RESIDUES

14-across – Slipper itself : SPRITE

17-across – Flights with no pilots in the squadron escaped : DRONES

19-across – It’s unspoken, but legal after 14 : IMPLICIT

22-across – Misleading foresight where oral examination is inadvisable : GIFTHORSE

24-across – Some rejected ritual baths as played in 23 ceremony : TABLA

25-across – Once an inmate in lab now? : EXCON

26-across – 23 town perplexed by mystery : WHODUNNIT

27-across – Mr Fixit is a nasal irritant : TROUBLESHOOTER

1-down – PhD questions : THETHIRDDEGREE

2-down – Becomes invalid and dies : EXPIRES

3-down – Learning to reposition a boat with new hooter on board : KNOWLEDGE

4-down – Shells for loonies : NUTCASES

5-down – Every second counts identifying advance air strikes by a quirk : ODDITY

6-down – Nobel laureate up a tree : SUMAC

7-down – Man of faith in the middle of the road? It’s logical : APRIORI

8-down – A car, not small talk about other right performer : CHELSEATRACTOR

15-down – Communist leaders applying central cure to one disease, consumed by another : POLITBURO

16-down – Flying insects and flightless birds : EMPERORS

18-down – Major say in bid, insurance company leads : OFFICER

20-down – I can’t be bothered with the government : CABINET

21-down – Lay it on thick with a Welcome to the bistro! Welcome! : TROWEL

23-down – Man of faith greeting name-dropping upstarts : HINDU

1-across – Tory rebel worse off with Miliband, an uncomfortable diagnosis : IRRITABLE

6-across – Twelve there, twelve back : NOON

8-across – Ex-minister loves to replace articles with a line that’s feeling moody? : HORMONAL

9-across – Get the better of the twerp from Balliol, say : OUTWIT

10-across – Baby bird with canary, gyrfalcon and egret’s wings : CYGNET

11-across – Friendly minister not convinced by his own identity? : AMICABLE

12-across – On reflection, that is left, not right : ITSELF

15-across – See 1 : SYNDROME

16-across – Valve hit, high-pitched note coming in : STOPCOCK

19-across – Organ in song hoisted up : LIFTED

21-across – Pompous speech minister has dashed through : HARANGUE

22-across – House not entirely accepting animal sport : BOXING

24-across – Minister managed to overlook a rule : GOVERN

25-across – Awful slut I was, in some cases : LAWSUITS

26-across – Biblical character in Joshua sent reeling : ESAU

27-across – Tell twice one’s alone : SINGLETON

1-down – A hunted-for key? : IVORY

2-down – Cameron’s foreign affair : ROMANCE

3-down – Principle that can do a U-turn? : TENET

4-down – Ex-minister covering commercial songs : BALLADS

5-down – Parliamentary proposal written in detail, even parts provoking strong feeling : EMOTIONAL

6-down – Old fart in reactionary, unjust : NOTFAIR

7-down – Standard Italian coastal region a non-starter up in Rome, perhaps? : ORIFLAMME

13-down – Shape great among many quadrilaterals : TETRAGONS

14-down – Affairs involving great leader go up for punishment by the whips : FLOGGINGS

17-down – Raised up walls in behind a flat surface : PLATEAU

18-down – Where to find a crackpot like Mr Putin, ultimately? : KREMLIN

20-down – Two Tories in pursuit of the inedible : FOXHUNT

22-down – See 1 across : BOWEL

23-down – It’s unacceptable, however you look at it : NOTON