Private Eye begin their 1621 issue’s cryptic crossword by clowning around (sort of).
The straight part of the clue is ‘comic’. How do we get to a word which shares that meaning by using the rest of the clue?
In this instance, ‘senior Tory leaders’ refers to the first letters (or ‘leaders’) of ‘senior and ‘Tory’.
Another word for ‘dig’ is meant to appear around these letters. Dig can have a number of meanings, but here it’s used to refer to a cutting remark, as in ‘having a dig at someone’.
‘Jeer’ is a synonym for this sense of dig, and when it is placed around ‘S’ and ‘T’ we reveal a comic and have solved the clue: JESTER
How will you get on with the rest of crossword setter Cyclops’ creation?