Crossword Genius

Conservative and Independent to write about showing favouritism (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

nepotic

'showing favouritism' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'conservative and independent to write about' is the wordplay.
'conservative' becomes 'c' (abbreviation commonly used in UK politics).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another (I've seen this in other clues).
'independent' becomes 'i'.
'write' becomes 'pen' ('pen' can be a synonym of 'write'**).
'about' says the letters should be written backwards.
'i'+'to'+'pen'='itopen'
'itopen' back-to-front is 'nepoti'.
'c' after 'nepoti' is 'NEPOTIC'.

(Other definitions for nepotic that I've seen before include "preferring family" , "Nice pot (anag.)" , "not looking beyond the family?" , "showing favouritism" , "Favouring one's relatives" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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