Operation sees old Conservative obstructing newspapers (7)
I believe the answer is:
process
'operation' is the definition.
(I know that operation can be written as process)
'old conservative obstructing newspapers' is the wordplay.
'old' becomes 'o' (abbreviation).
'conservative' becomes 'C' (UK political abbreviation).
'obstructing' means one lot of letters goes inside another (inserted letters interrupt or obstruct the word).
'newspapers' becomes 'press' (the press is the newspaper industry).
'o'+'c'='oc'
'oc' going into 'press' is 'PROCESS'.
'sees' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for process that I've seen before include "Natural series of changes" , "Move in formation" , "Series of steps achieving a particular end" , "Corpses in series of steps" , "that's the course of action" .)