The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 3 plus 5 letter word SOB STORY
I've seen this crossword clue in Independent
S
O
B
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T
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More clues leading to the result SOB STORY
- Thus heartless boss, political type, makes attempt to arouse sympathy
- Call for help involving British politician’s sad tale
- Sorry tale of former pupil on board, Conservative
- Help politician to conceal British tale of woe
- Boss upset by right-wing whinging
- . Help politician to pocket billions? A sorry tale
- Sorry tale of old boy on board, Conservative
- Request for help — involving British right?
- Peter Carey novel “The Chemistry of Tears”, maybe
- Backing Big Society around Britain added to Conservative narrative of decline
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "tale of woe" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case tale of woe = sob story.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.