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Parental acquaintance they say was in high office. (5,6)
I was just about to come onto the forum to ask about this clue when I decided to have one more go at working it out.
The letters I had from the across clues all looked right, giving L - O - D / - E - R - E, but I couldn't think of anything that would fit the first word. I thought the second word might be DEGREE.
It suddenly clicked - for no apparent reason - that the answer is LLOYD GEORGE.
If you worked out the answer without knowing the old song ("Lloyd George knew my father, My father knew Lloyd George"), how did you do it?!!