The news in clues

“Brexiteer” appeared in some of 2016’s “Word of the Year” lists and a couple of the year’s puzzles. And last week, I encountered its counterpart for the first time, in an Independent puzzle by Dac with this clue ...

12ac Anti-Brexiteer more confused by an embodiment of sovereignty? (8)
[ anagram (�?confused’) of MORE, then AN (�?an’), then a two-letter abbrev. for the Queen (�?embodiment of sovereignty’) ]
[ REMO + AN + ER ]

... for REMOANER. Meanwhile, the institutions of Europe continue in overtaking “drug” as the way to indicate E, or indeed EC, as in this quiptic clue from Provis ...

22d European Commission is upset about Norway after that time (5)
[ abbrev. for �?European Commission’ + IS (�?is’), both reversed (�?upset’), and surrounding (�?about’) abbrev. for Norway ]
[ reversal of ECIS, surrounding N ]

... for, simply, SINCE.

Latter patter

Until recently, I had presumed that ARIS, as a term for one’s backside, was a sneaky way of saying the mildly rude “arse” without causing offence. But then this clue from Azed for a technical term from music and classical prosody ...

8ac Bottle, second imbibed, making one up-beat (5)
[ synonym for bottom (�?bottle’), around (�?imbibed’) abbrev. for �?second’ ]
[ ARIS around S ]

... sent me on a bewildering trail once I had pencilled in ARSIS. ARIS does indeed sound like “ass” or “arse”, but that, apparently, is mere coincidence.

ARIS, Chambers Dictionary tells me, is short for ARISTOTLE. And ARISTOTLE is Cockney rhyming slang for BOTTLE. BOTTLE is in turn a shortened version of BOTTLE AND GLASS, which is itself rhyming slang for ARSE.

A shortened version of some rhyming slang for a shortened version of some rhyming slang felt like quite the journey. That was, until the New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English told me about LORD AND MASTER, which is rhyming slang for PLASTER, which is a shortened version of PLASTER OF PARIS, which is rhyming slang for ARIS, at which point we take the further four leaps detailed above.

Naturally, it doesn’t stop there (unless Partridge’s cited source Ray Puxley is ’aving a bubble barf), which brings us to our next challenge. LORD AND MASTER has duly been shortened to one word, no doubt awaiting some rhyming three-word term, which can itself then be shortened; in the meantime, reader, how would you clue LORD?

Clueing competition

Thanks for your clues for DESIGNER STUBBLE. The phrase seemed to lend itself to charming cryptic definitions, such as Jonemm’s “Fashion statement that’s irritating but grows on you”, JollySwagman’s “It’s a bit rough but we’ll just have to take it on the chin” and Alberyalbery’s “Fuzzy feeling one gets covering boat race”.

There were also some ingenious mechanisms of 15-letter wordplay, notably DameSweeneyEggblast’s “�?Blue’ singer’s debt, perhaps, to facial hair” and Steveran’s “Sensible but extremely rugged bristles, good to go”.

The runners-up are Lizard’s “Rogue needs big bluster and hair specially arranged” and Chrisbeee’s “Close shave avoided when eccentric butler singes bed”; the winner is Peshwari’s smooth “Have these bristles been dug out?”

Kudos to Peshwari; please leave this fortnight’s entries and your pick of the broadsheet cryptics below.

Clue of the fortnight

Once the solver got past the apparent Arfur Daley-ism of the surface reading in Pasquale’s clue ...

15ac Man mixed up with a nag uncertain about leaving home (7)
[ anagram (�?about’) of UNCERTAIN minus (�?leaving’) synonym for the adjective �?home’ ]
[ anagram of UNCERTA ]

... it was a magical moment to see the appearance of a CENTAUR. Gee up!