syzygy, try writing to the Guardian Money problem-solvers. They've dealt with things like Guardian offers which go wrong - quite sporting of the dear old Grauniad to own up to its mistakes in print, I always think!
I haven't really looked at the clues but I googled politician quote apocryphal and I reckon I found the right one quite easily, as if you take out the spaces it's 27 characters long. If I'm right it's by That Woman, otherwise I'm completely wrong. Hope that helps, dizoz.