Tales of woe when fortune's dividing solid Conservatives (4-4,7)
I believe the answer is:
hard-luck stories
'tales of woe' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I can't judge whether it can be defined by this definition.
'fortune's dividing solid conservatives' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'fortune's' could be 'lucks' ('luck' can be a synonym of 'fortune') and 'lucks' is found within the answer.
'solid' could be 'hard' (similar in meaning) and 'hard' is present in the answer.
'conservatives' could be 'tories' (Tory is an example) and 'tories' is present in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'when' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?