Popular officer on the whole (2,7)

I believe the answer is:

in general

'on the whole' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'popular officer' is the wordplay.
'popular' becomes 'in'.
'officer' becomes 'general' (general is a kind of officer).
'in'+'general'='IN GENERAL'

(Other definitions for in general that I've seen before include "More-or-less" , "Not particularly" , "Where soldiers should have faith" , "on the whole" , "Overall" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph and The Guardian.

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