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Not a problem, prospero - but thanks anyway.

That title looked out of place to me - as if it had been desperately jemmied in because of what's happening right now. I don't dispute the accuracy of it, I just found it unfunny, po-faced and rather pointless - the clever wordplay deserved a suitably interesting partner, not something 'off-the-peg' (I thought a couple of the others were quite funny, especialy... the other one).

Political point-scoring has no place in a crossword (in my opinion) but The Guardian clearly thinks otherwise because it sneaks in time and time again. Does the readership demand it?

drxx - I'm with you in spirit and understand your concerns. The new Puritanism must be of concern to everyone. I hate group-think/coterie-jokery as much as the next man. The Guardian does have a tendency to assume the things one might expect the Guardian to assume as given...

Having said that, I love Paul, and The Guardian gets 50% of my time as a lame, fence-sitting patrician Tory puzzler.

And I do enjoy the puzzles, so thanks to Paul

I'm very pleased you agree with me, sircrispin - at least there are two of us! And I very much agree with your opening statement - I'm a reluctant tory having voted Labour all of my adult life until 2017 when I came to share your concerns.
Yes, Paul is very entertaining... for the most part (I don't expect anything will change at the Guardian but as long as Azed isn't affected I'll grin and bear it - he's the reason I still buy The Observer every week).

Thanks Paul...fun and fair throughout

To revisit 22,17,3. I have the first word, the pilgrimage, and the last word reminds me a bit of a certain Shakespearean villain. I'm left to find a 3-letter insert for 'great'.

mattrom - the word for "great" is four letters and hugs the pilgrimage.

Ah! I see, thanks, Prospero. I normally enjoy the Genius, and Paul's other offerings, but have found this one a slog to reverse engineer the titles.

The pilgrimage has several variants, 3 letters in this case before treatment

...and thanks, Ixion.

drxx, apparent cruciverbal editorialising is not confined to the Grauniad. The current Daily Telegraph Enigmatic Variations has at 39a “Calamities at Holyrood saw end of one disgraced leader (7)” and the Sunday Times last weekend had “12a British government? Pure rubbish ultimately to a man! (9)”. I am inclined to approve of both apparent sentiments......