The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 8 plus 6 letter word FAREWELL SPEECH
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
F
A
R
E
W
E
L
L
S
P
E
E
C
H
Buddy explains!

The straight part
We know that "It’s so long even if it’s short" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case it’s so long even if it’s short = farewell speech.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.