The Referendum Day Puzzle

On 23 June 2016, the day of the European Union Referendum in the UK, Alan Connor published a blog post on the Guardian’s website containing what appeared to be a normal cryptic puzzle, set by Boatman and Crew. You’d have quickly realised, though, that something strange was happening, as the preamble stated “1,5,17,9 will be tomorrow’s story”.

If you didn’t see the puzzle at the time, you can try it by clicking here. As you work on the clues, remember that you wouldn’t have known, when the puzzle first appeared, what the result of the Referendum would be … You can see the solution and Alan’s commentary by clicking here. I may write more on this, and how it can be seen as quite a good analogy for the Schrodinger’s Cat paradox, later – for now, enjoy!