The letter ‘B’ is scattered all around the FT Information Puzzle for March. The BBC and its troublesome relationship with a star presenter dominated the airwaves, as did Brexit, Boris Johnson and the UK authorities’s coverage to cease boats of refugees.

Appropriately, the compiler for the March Information Puzzle is Paul Bringloe, one-time promoting copywriter, now a full-time compiler, whose FT crossword deal with is Neo.

In looking for as many information references as doable for the puzzle, Paul divided his job into three. The primary was to simply accept that some phrases or phrases would don’t have anything to do with information occasions, and couldn’t simply be labored to help the information theme. “I labored exhausting to attempt to hold these to absolutely the minimal, however some simply wouldn’t budge,” he says.

Second, he checked out an entry with no apparent connection to the information theme, however one which at the very least may very well be manipulated to grow to be topical.

For instance, the phrase PURGED occurs to be an anagram of ERG (the Brexit-supporting European Analysis Group,) and DUP, Northern Eire’s unionist get together, “so it was doable to level the clue in direction of the Northern Eire protocol”.

Third, he discovered he may give you options that straight mirrored the information theme. Cease The Boats, Rishi Sunak’s migration coverage mantra, slotted into the grid simply. “The definition was apparent, all I wanted was a cryptic half to finish the clue.”

The Information Puzzle seems on the FT crossword app on the final Sunday of every month.