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I had never heard it. I Googled, and am also surprised it's in a Guardian puzzle.

If you are ever on social media the acronym in 25 appears quite a lot. It's one of those subjects around which the discussion tends to get very heated and sometimes quite nasty.

Weird mix. Four or five which were so simple I suspected a trick. Most clues seemed OK, and then four or five which are utterly impenetrable, and resist any parsing, even after taking a timeout for a few hours and a cold beer.

Yes I agree plutocrat. An odd one. I think what stands out here for me is the number of clues that the solution is clear but parsing seems impossible. I've given up staring at 7d trying to figure it out.

But that said I enjoyed the challenge as ever so thanks Boatman for something a bit different.

FOI 1d. LOI 20a. COD quite a clever one 22a.

7d is thematic. The fifth word tells you what to do with the first four words and the rest is the definition.

Actonhighstreet thanks so much. So obvious when you're shown but I'm not sure I'd have ever got it.

I can see 2 thematics in the across answers.

Quite right, Stevie. I clocked the second one first time around but forgot it later when I did the count!

Thank you actonhighstreet after reading through a number of times I was about to give up. Now have one answer and understand parsing ! Whether I make any more progress is doubtful but thanks for a way in.

I haven't seen Boatman for some time and recalled him/her as a difficult setter for me. In the event I was surprised at the number of easy ones that I filled in on first read-through. Then I got a few more until I arrived at the impenetrable ones. I have answers for all the clues, but was unable to fully parse several:
12ac - I don't understand the explanation given above
22ac
24ac - what has the disgraced president got to do with the answer?
29ac I still can't parse this despite the thread
7d - thanks for the explanation on thread
16d
25d - I'm not sure what the acronym is

There were a couple of answers that I had to google as I'd nver heard of them.
FOI 10ac closely fo;;owed by 19ac, LOI 25d and CODs13ac, 26ac, 3d and 24d
I can't see the theme