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22a: defn. "thing" (slang), homophone for "a, 4 ("beautiful")"

The (23,25) pair parses as:
defn. "great"
5-letter reversed "sweets" inside 4-letter "passion"

Thanks Geeker

Finished. Thanks for all the help.

Thanks all, including Paul. I reckon this was tough. I finished, but only by guessing what the first four letters of 8d might be, then seeing what came up in Chambers. Wouldn’t have got it otherwise (never heard of it)

Somewhat surprised to see 16d nominated as COD, which makes me think I’ve missed something. As far as I can tell, the definition is wrong (might have got away with it if plural) and the wordplay requires a double-letter that does not apply. Feels very loose to me, but I may be missing something

"That is" is wearing something that causes us to call people four-eyed when they wear this something.

Ah, got it. I had missed that. Definition still a bit loose though?

as i said much earlier, the definition is wrong - should be plural rather than singular

Soe=rry, but for me this exemplifies what I don't like about Paul puzzles. Very helpful suggestions here, but:
I am still stuck on 21a : [ * E * T * I * M]
I am guessing 'premier' means initial letters for the last 3, and def = policy - I can get a policy with letters 1-4 =money but can't explain the fifth letter. Same word as minno@37 I think.

Money is first four letters as you say. Then it’s one letter for “premier of surprisingly” inside a three letter word for bound (as in boundary). Def is “moderate policy”.