I was trying to post this last night when MC5 started to go nuts. Seed of the Greenwich time signal (3) In the meantime, Chalky, yes, do letters.

Slightly pointless expulsion under ruling. [10]
. U . . E . T . . .
Darren - Is it PIP ?

Chalky - yes. Is yours SUBJECTION?

Darren - absolutely yes. Now, as you seem to know about these things - would my clue have 'held up' even without the letters to guide the way?

Well, "slightly" for SUB took me a while to get. But that's just my failing! "Under" seems a little superfluous to me, though.

I think it works as a clue, however.

Thanks - I see your point. But without the preposition, the definition would have been 'ruling' - which could be perceived as a verb, therefore the solution would have ended .......ING. Yes?

The fact it *could* be perceived as a verb is irrelevant. It's OK to be misleading in a cryptic clue! Just because the straight def ends in "ING" doesn't mean the solution necessarily has to do so, as long as it's still a valid definition.

Here's one. Let's see how you go:
Attractive ribbon put to sound use [8,4]

That'll be MAGNETIC TAPE, I think.
This is shoddy, but it's late at night -
Poor man, since returning passport to province [8]

Searching for place in England, bugger all good to vegetarians (7 down)