| FTSE | Acronymic name of the UK's 100 share index (4) |
| CABALS | Word, from Hebrew for "tradition" and a supposedly acronymic name of Charles II's private ministry, for secret cliques, complots or intrigues (6) |
| FOOTSIE | Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Share Index; ankle-flirting (7) |
| GCHQ | Abbreviated name of the UK's intelligence agency operating from a giant top-secret "Doughnut" (1,1,1,1) |
| ESPY | Acronymic award name that, when expanded, only shares one word with its host channel's acronymic name |
| HANG | Suspend half those quoted in share index (4) |
| IKEA | International company with an acronymic name |
| ABBA | Band with an acronymic name |
| ALFA | Until 1920, an Italian car manufacturer's acronymic name |
| SAAB | Auto with an acronymic name |
| IHOP | Restaurant chain with an acronymic name |
| KING | The location of the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (4,7,6) |
| ISLE | Fair -; noted for seabirds and traditional knitwear, the most remote of the UK's inhabited land masses (4) |
| OUSE | Any one of the UK's four rivers whose name simply means "water" (4) |
| TRIDENT | What is the name of the UK's nuclear missile programme? (7) |
| ALEC | Last member of the UK's House of Lords to be appointed prime minister, Sir ... Douglas-Home |
| SHETLANDS | (Technically incorrect) name of the UK's northernmost region (9) |
| BATH | Significant feature of the UK's only entire city named as a Unesco World Heritage Site |
| RAS | Abbreviated name of the UK's learned society dedicated to solar-system science, conceived over dinner by Charles Babbage, Sir John Herschel and others in 1820 (1,1,1) |
| WELLS | One of the UK's smallest cities; or, the author of The Time Machine, The Invisible Man and The War of the Worlds (5) |
