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Bazotto, it sounds ('orally') the same as a slightly longer word, one letter added at the beginning, that means 'perverted'.

I think I’ve had a good look at possible analogous patterns but haven’t found anything significant. I think I’m resigned to the flag mash up being the correct solution therefore.

A couple of interesting things came to light though.

There’s a near miss of the beer swilling politician’s first name, two lines above. Since there’s no clash with the T in the middle of his nearly name, there’s technically no midpoint letter. However, if you take the midpoint of T with itself, you hit a G... hmmm! Nothing comes of taking similar clashes (with letters themselves) in the cells which would represent the other 5 stars (the T being the 6th).

If you do the cyclical switching with the differing letters of Trick and Treat you get GB (for the I/E and C/A clashes). The K/T clash has an even number of letters in between so nothing generated there.

I was tickled by the appearance of a goat straddling the clue which referenced its noise :-)

To my simple mind, this puzzle was straightforward enough at the end, which made a nice change, and it was quite elegant in its simplicity.

The whole column and half a row to be highlighted do consist of two thematic names, or at least the names of precisely two people. They are situated symmetrically in the grid and together with the 7 letter person form a pretty good approximation to two half flags, I think.

I would maybe have used the word "found" instead of "hidden" in the preamble.

As for the title, I think it just refers to 31st October, which of course is central to the theme, and may or may not have lots of added significance for us all this year...

Great puzzle, even though like others I inwardly groaned at the theme :-)

Thanks malone. I think my brain is sufficiently fed up with this particular issue that it's given up functioning properly.

schorley - I am coming to the view that you are correct. I really wanted the diagonals to contain 2 five letter individuals who actually took part in negotiations opposite Barnier (as opposed to two politicians who are notable for having strong opinions but did not negotiate - there are loads of those) perhaps revealed by decoding using the words Trick and Treat.
If there is anything like that I can’t find it.

Like most contributors I found the grid fill ok and the negotiator soon enough but the other 2 names aren't both 'hidden' as such, unless constant reference to the ongoing saga has dulled my senses and I've plumped for the wrong two. Initially I even Googled 'Asif Oig' as I misinterpreted the use of the term 'analogous', assuming it was a mirror image. D'oh!

Gazzar, you're not the only one who wondered about AS IF OIG.

I don''t now have any doubt about the highlighting, but I don't think the pattern has anything whatsoever to do with half flags. The seven clash cells do not represent half an EU flag - that would require six cells only. On the other side the supposed half of the UK flag has been rotated ninety degrees for some inexplicable reason.

I think the flag theory does not stand up to scrutiny. The analogous pattern is simply symmetry.

Murky

I initially thought the same as you, and posted to that effect, but when I checked the EU flag if you take slightly more than half it does look like the clashes, given there is a star at top and bottom.

Likewise slightly more than half of English flag (squashed a bit to fit the crossword) would look like left half.

Doesn't explain why no diagonals (or alternatively why English flag used), but I am still inclined to think this is flags. If the only analogousness is symmetry about the central row that is definitely stretching analogous too far in my view.

I shall read the solution notes with interest in three weeks' time.

It's this surely?

https://www.europeanceo.com/business-and-management/the-best-and-worst-case-scenarios-for-the-uk-after-brexit/