Cryptic crossword No 1,833

Thanks for this, Baldur. Clearly, your surface theming with its political references dominates. In service of that, you have employed a fair number of links and synonyms that did not come easily to mind which made for a difficult fill. Got there in the end but did need the Annotations to understand some of your trickery. 11a/12a, 5d and 20d were my podium. Thanks. PM

Thanks Baldur. I enjoyed the rich thematic treatment! Somewhat defeated otherwise, reveals starting 2/3 of the way in. Favourites: 8a, 10a, 11a 12a, 5d, 16d, 17d and 20d. Spoilers …

Thanks Baldur, very topical. I particularly enjoyed 13a, 21a, 26a, 4d & 17d among others. Your explanations add some wry context to the thematic choices. My eyebrow twitched in a few places with some stretchy wp & synonyms, but I thought not to get too pernickety in recognition of the theme. Let me know if you’d like to hear any of that kind of feedback. Otherwise we’ll just wait out the next couple of weeks, eh?

Thanks Baldur. There were quite a few where I guessed the answer and then checked my luck. There were others where I needed your explanations to make sense of the clues such as 10a, 25a, 5d, and 14d. Nonetheless there were some wonderful clues in my opinion like 8a, 21a, 1d, 17d, and 18d. One quibble in reply.