Speculation As He Joins Politician

[satprof]

Alphapuzzle cryptic clue for today. A bit early for once, but my wonderful 1Gb/s fibre is on the blink, so am using alternative system.

[emmie]

theory, he tory

[emmie]

hope that makes sense

[1ozzy]

Makes sense to me.
Well done.

[emmie]

thanks 1ozzy...

[satprof]

Congratulations, emmie. Theory looks excellent to me.

The given letter is no help, but E looks to be 3. Two of the many 6-letter grid possibilities have a 3 in the third position and one of those is impossible as it begins and ends with the same letter,

[1ozzy]

//and one of those is impossible as it begins and ends with the same letter,//

Thinking cap time Satprof.

Nothing is impossible.

[mallyh]

good grief what time do you collect your paper if you posted at 4.32 x

[mouseymick]

Theory .. 24,12,3,6,5,16 .. Q is 8 and X is 23.

[satprof]

Mally, I live in Spain so don’t have a lot of local newsagents. All the same, the current day’s edition is available here, but at quite a stiff price and certainly not at that time in the morning.
The answer is subscribing to the Express app. Today was early as our Internet failed during a storm last night and I wanted to try out using my phone as a ‘hotspot’.

[mallyh]

thankyou x still very early though xx