Persuasive speech from Republican ahead of other fluid one, by Conservative (8)
I believe the answer is:
rhetoric
'persuasive speech' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'republican ahead of other fluid one by conservative' is the wordplay.
'republican' becomes 'r' (abbreviation).
'ahead of' says to put letters next to each other (I've seen this in other clues).
'fluid' is an anagram indicator.
'one' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral).
'by conservative' becomes 'c' (abbreviation commonly used in UK politics. I am not sure about the 'by' bit.**).
'other' anagrammed gives 'hetor'.
'r'+'hetor'+'i'+'c'='RHETORIC'
'from' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for rhetoric that I've seen before include "Art of using language for persuasion" , "Language used for impressive or exaggerated sound" , "Bombast - speechcraft" , "Reich rot? (anag)" , "Vague talk and empty promises" .)