Thomas Chacko

Barrister specialising in tax law.

[Thomas Chacko @thomasjac82]

@DrFrancisYoung Also for seeing what major English church decoration looked like: the glimpses of large polyptychs in the side chapels, the (probably Flemish, maybe Italian) crucifixion above the altar.

[Thomas Chacko @thomasjac82]

I find it grim (but not surprising) that the authorities think the best name is "Business and Property" - very UK plc. Despite the fact that a lot of chancery disputes aren't about either (wills, trusts, charity questions). And plenty of "business" disputes will be elsewhere.

[Harry Samuels @hnjsamuels]

I also just don’t buy that there’s any real confusion. In my experience, international clients think the Chancery Division has weight precisely because of its history and prestige. Domestic clients all know what it means (and often relish bringing a claim “in Chancery”!)

[Harry Samuels @hnjsamuels]

I also just don’t buy that there’s any real confusion. In my experience, international clients think the Chancery Division has weight precisely because of its history and prestige. Domestic clients all know what it means (and often relish bringing a claim “in Chancery”!)

[Thomas Chacko @thomasjac82]

@DrFrancisYoung whether Lovecraft *thought* he was exaggerating, of course, is another matter

[Thomas Chacko @thomasjac82]

@DrFrancisYoung I see your point but I think there is probably a bit more of a resemblance between real life and Mr Bingley than there was between Stanley Baldwin and Elrond (or for matter the real inhabitants of Cape Cod and the Deep Ones).

[Alice Salisbury @alicesalisburyj]

@kitmalthouse “these people”

[teresa smith @treesey]

This is repugnant

[sammeoch @sammeoch]

The right would have you support every war, however foolish. The left would have you oppose every war, however necessary. The centrist, wisely, opposes the last one and supports the next.

[Thomas Chacko @thomasjac82]

If someone was breaking into your car, and you said “you shouldn’t steal my things” and they said “The Church has a very nuanced view of private property. You haven’t mentioned the universal destination of goods! Have you considered that I *might* be in urgent need?” that wouldn’t be because they had a better understanding of those teachings then you did.

[Thomas Chacko @thomasjac82]

Part of the Pope’s role is to warn, and to warn right now about things going wrong today. He doesn’t need to recite the whole nuanced Catholic tradition on the subject whenever he does this! There now seems to be a habit of saying, “we can ignore this warning because there is such a tradition."

[Hogarthian Wastrel @yunghogarthian]

Those getting upset with Pope Leo for speaking sweepingly about the evil of war (while nonetheless affirming the just war tradition) should simply take it up with Christ for speaking like this without immediately qualifying His statements.

[Thomas Chacko @thomasjac82]

That doesn’t mean that they have a more sophisticated understanding of e.g. the Just War tradition than the Pope does – it often looks more like using the tradition as smoke and mirrors, as an excuse to ignore the warning.

[Thomas Chacko @thomasjac82]

this was another good one https://t.co/U5j3JRNDXA

[Thomas Chacko @thomasjac82]

@EdmundGriffiths @DrFrancisYoung https://t.co/Lm9HrD5RLt a very good "serious science article with headline by Lovecraft" example

[Dr. Calum Miller @DrCalumMiller]

Evil beyond words.

There is no defence for this.

Christians cannot support this.

[Thomas Chacko @thomasjac82]

@DrFrancisYoung @WalkerMarcus @cath_cov Leo very recently addressed the soldier's vocation: https://t.co/JticaChxZa - he is not a pacifist and I didn't read this weekend's comments as about that.

[Thomas Chacko @thomasjac82]

@DrFrancisYoung @WalkerMarcus @cath_cov But in this case I think it reads pretty clearly as a response to Christians (and some Catholics) using just war theory as a way to find an excuse for a war they want, rather than a method to assess whether they are doing the right thing or not.

[Thomas Chacko @thomasjac82]

Leonard Cohen largely on the money in The Future.

[Thomas Chacko @thomasjac82]

When my nephews were about to be born, they were surrounded by medical concern and everyone was waiting for the earliest safe time for delivery. Parliament has declared that even then, when the doctors were scanning every few days, their lives were worthless in the eyes of the law. They could be killed without consequence or even investigation. And it did this with no campaign, no explanation and no debate (45 minutes in the Commons, a few hours in the Lords).

I think this isn’t surprising – not just in the violence we endorse, but how trivially we approach it. It is exactly how our establishment reacted to the butchery in Gaza over the last two years: refusal to look clearly at what was happening, evasions, fury at the people who wouldn’t shut up about it. The wildest attacks on freedom of expression in Britain are on Palestine (mass arrests) and on abortion, where you can be arrested for saying almost anything, or even standing silently, near an abortion clinic. Given that it’s well known that some women feel forced into abortion by financial pressure, and the law prohibits asking them about this or offering any sort of support, this is not about harassment. It’s about omerta. As a society, nothing should draw attention to what happens in that clinic. Nothing should remind people what is under that rubble in Gaza.

There was mass coverage of the first strike on a hospital, intense debate as to who did it. Now it’s par for the course, we pay no attention. We have become accustomed to double-tap strikes, killing those helping the trapped and injured. We have become accustomed to dead paramedics.

This happened before, but it was unusual and wasn’t presented as fine, just the reality of war. There are other atrocities going on – in Sudan, between Pakistan and Afghanistan: but compared to Gaza those lack the sheer effort into shouting down criticism, people *much* angrier about how the war is talked about than how it is conducted. Intense commitment to “nothing to see here”. Similar to the establishment response to the “grooming” (rape) gangs, and it produces similar festering outrage. (Dismissed as “just a right wing thing” on rape, “just a Muslim thing” on Gaza. It’s not.)

This war has coarsened us: but I think this was there before and last week’s vote is just another symptom of it. We are a violent, callous (and sentimental) society, but we keep the victims offstage. Those who get crushed by it, the unwanted child, the toddler trapped in the rubble of their home, the teenage girl in care, are non-persons, because we can’t face the demands they might make on us.

[Kathleen Stock @Docstockk]

And just when you thought it could not get worse... https://t.co/qqQJHBFPm2