Alan Connor finds ill-conceived investments and hidden gateways in his pick of the week's best – and most economical – cryptic clues
The news in clues
Economics professor Robert Skidelsky argues in these pages against reproducing the structural flaws of the pre-crash world. He cites the views of others in his field, but might equally have used Paul's clue from Wednesday's Guardian…
27/8ac Asuttermiserybeginning to advance, useill-conceivedcuts (9,8)
...for AUSTERITY MEASURES. Crosswording comfort, then, for the opposition as they decide whether to oppose the spending review? Not from Thursday's FT, in which Neo portrayed the Labour party …
5ac Shadow chancellorfinished making mess (5-2)
… at the end of a BALLS-UP. Fiscal irresponsibility was also the topic of Arachne's terse Tuesday clue…
11ac MarvellousMadoff? (5-5)
… for SUPER-DUPER. The allusion is of course to disgraced Ponzi financier Bernie Madoff, and if $65bn worth of fraud doesn't make you a super duper, I don't know how much would – which brings us to this week's challenge.
Our phrase this time is one which took a while to settle down. In the 1930s, American criminologist Edwin Sutherland dabbled with "The financial crimes of the white-collar classes" and "These white-collar criminaloids" before settling on the phrase we use to this day. So reader, how would you clue WHITE-COLLAR CRIME?
Crosswords in the real world
Happy news for those of you not southern enough to have made it to Boatman's "Brighton Boot Camp for Trainee Tormentors". Boatman – better known as Ashley Knowles, the Guardian setter we met here in a Q&A last year– is teaching another masterclass for would-be setters in Manchester:
I'm looking forward to a stimulating class, with a group of people representing a range of experience, from self-confessed dabblers to those who are starting to have their work published.
It's at the Friends' Meeting House on Saturday 16 November and the details are at Boatman's site.
Clueing competition
Thanks for your clues for SIZE ZERO. Most of you understandably avoided indicating both of the zeds directly; not so the brave pair WoodSmoke with "Seize Roz any old how – she‚Äôs only fit for heroin chic" and harlobarlo with "Zsa Zsa's first soirée influenced what thin women wear".
There were some charmingly terse and witty clues, including benmoreassynt2's "Number of the least?", GeoScanner's "Quant-um physiques?" and RolandDenison's "Magnitude of Mr Mostel? Hardly!"
The runners-up are Clueso's sly "Nothing to wear?" and phitonelly's Dustin Hoffman-referencing "See Rizzo, dishevelled, dangerously thin"; the winner is samsiga's erudite "Stage direction for Leander's dying word is said to be very small". Kudos to Sam - please leave this week's entries and your pick of the broadsheet cryptics below.
Clue of the Week
A doubly devious definition in Tuesday's Times…
14d Leftcopperonshelf to be picked up– keep closer (10)
… where "keep" is not a verb but a noun and "closer" not adjectival but nounal, and so the entry is PORTCULLIS with a surface reading that is very far from grating.