Selfish people in English society progress first (7)
I believe the answer is:
egoists
'selfish people' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both people as well as being plural nouns.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I don't see?
'in english society progress first' is the wordplay.
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'english' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'society' becomes 's' (common abbreviation in names of organisations).
'progress' becomes 'go' (I've seen this in other clues).
'first' becomes 'ist' (ist resembles gst).
'e'+'s'='es'
'go'+'ist'='goist'
'es' going around 'goist' is 'EGOISTS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for egoists that I've seen is " Selfish, vain types".)