Conservative line taken by Poor Clare about one of the ministry? (8)
I believe the answer is:
clerical
'conservative line taken by poor clare about one of the ministry?' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'conservative line taken by poor clare about one' is the wordplay.
'conservative' becomes 'C' (UK political abbreviation).
'line' becomes 'l' (used when specifying particular lines from a poem).
'taken by' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'poor' indicates anagramming the letters.
'about one' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral. I am not sure about the 'about' bit.).
'clare' anagrammed gives 'ercal'.
'ercal' enclosing 'i' is 'erical'.
'c'+'l'+'erical'='CLERICAL'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for clerical that I've seen before include "concerned with office" , "may be an error?" , "Such a life Eliot depicted" , "Like routine office work" , "working in an office" .)