Dave Baker

Backend engineer @zapier. Mostly retweets. Co-founded @phpdorset & @phpsouthcoast. ❤️ != endorsed. He/him/his. Husband to @the_real_stacie. Go follow her!!

[Dave Baker @fully_baked]

@secondfret I’ve not started S2 yet and plan on rewatching S1 first too. I think it’s really well done too 😅. So add one to the list for supporters to offset the despisers

[Dr Andrew Meyerson @AndrewMeyerson]

Dear 🇬🇧,

Here’s your weekly reminder that 10 years ago, your NHS was ranked the #1 healthcare system on Earth. You don’t need a new system. You need a new govt that won’t destroy your public NHS to feed a private system. Your family isn’t safe in #ToryBritain.

#SOSNHS

[Dave Baker @fully_baked]

@secondfret @the_real_stacie and I were discussing this, this morning. I’m terrified of my suit for a friends wedding this summer 🫣😅😳

[Dave Baker @fully_baked]

@destinytrack -10 especially time gating exotic quest behind it. This used to be a loot/shoot/story not a stand around for four hours hoping for a goldfish 😡

[Edwin Hayward @edwinhayward]

Here's how the future is going to play out.

(Long - please expand the tweet.)

1. The Tories will wreck everything at an ever increasing pace as the GE approaches, like irresponsible teenagers who know they're not going to be the ones cleaning up the morning after their wild drunken binge.

2. Labour will win the GE on a desperate tide of people wanting to Get the Tories Out, but (and this will be VERY important later) their future freedom to manoevre will be hampered by the bright red lines they laid down on things like Brexit.

3. Labour will start trying to fix some of the stuff the Tories broke. It will prove very expensive. Mending is always more expensive than breaking.

4. Labour will try to Make Brexit Work. The RW tabloids will tear even bigger strips off them than usual.

5. Make Brexit Work won't. Work, that is. Trying to make Brexit work is like trying to get the toothpaste back in the tube after you've brushed your teeth with it.

6. Meanwhile, Labour are having to spend more more more just to keep stuff from literally falling apart (think sewers, water pipes, collapsing schools, crumbling hospitals etc.)

7. Tories watch from the sidelines, laughing and jeering. "Typical Labour. Always spending money they don't have."

8. If they're VERY lucky, Labour will go into the GE-after-next with the overall situation in Britain slightly better than it was when they took office. The country will only be knee-deep in metaphoric and real sewage, rather than thigh deep.

9. The Tories and the RW media will tag team to blame everything that's (still) broken in Britain on Labour. "Same old Labour. Can't be trusted with the economy. Can't be trusted with anything. Can't even fix Brexit, despite their lofty promises."

(Important intermission: Labour will never get fair coverage in our British media. But this is a "known known". They need to figure out how to win, repeatedly, anyway.)

10. GE2: Electric Boogaloo. Labour are stuck. The taunts about having failed their flagship Brexit fixing policy hit home, because they're true. That lubricates the way for all the lies the Tories and RW media are spinning about their wider performance to slip down like honey.

IF Labour pivot towards SM/CU/Rejoin, they might as well tattoo "we wasted 5 years because we didn't have a clue about what we were doing when it comes to Brexit" across their collective foreheads. They may pivot anyway, because the alternative is even worse. This is where those bright red lines (remember them?) will bite them in the fundament so hard they won't be able to sit down for the next six months. Because the press can absolutely legitimately scream "U-turn! Come and see the U-turn so big, it's visible from the Moon." And it will be true.

(Absolutely critical point: there is no "Get the Tories Out" vote. "Ooh, the scary Tories will get back in if you don't vote for us" doesn't have anything like the same impact, especially with non-core Labour voters who lent their votes last time but who are absolutely livid about Labour's failing approach to the Brexit they detest.)

11. Labour lose GE2. A one-term wonder, and they're done. The Tories do what they do best: keep blaming everything on Labour, while picking their looting back up where they left off last time.

-----------

Scroll back up through the scenario above, and look at how Brexit runs through it like a vein pumping pure poison.

That is why Labour need to change their fundamental approach to Brexit, and they need to do so now.

Stop ruling anything out (not saying you won't do something isn't the same as proactively saying you will). Think along the lines of "Labour will do whatever it takes to mitigate the damage Brexit is causing". Make the change far enough ahead of the GE that the fuss about the U-turn is reduced to the constant every-day moaning and carping of the RW press by the time the GE comes around.

Also, Labour need to reconsider PR. It's the only hope they (and we) have of anything approaching long-term stability.

Many of the problems Britain faces will take 2, 3, 4+ election cycles to fix. And they need to be fixed. But the only conceivable way of getting the time necessary to do so is to form long-term partnerships via PR.

That way, you get rid of the short-termism that has dominated British politics to the ruin of us all. (In the current 5-year political cycle, the first year is spent learning the ropes and the last gearing up for the GE, so there are really only 3 even vaguely "productive" years to be wrung out of incumbency.)

Phew, and we're done. You may disagree. You probably will disagree. But please take a very deep breath and a big step back, and think about whether your disagreement comes because it feels genuinely too horrible to contemplate the real world in the stark terms I painted above, and whether your support for a particular political party is blinding you to the reality of what they can achieve in a short 5-year (really 3) period in office.

[Jason Hickel @jasonhickel]

"A rapid reduction in fossil fuels, essential to avoid devastating climate breakdown, would have minimal financial impact on the vast majority of people, new research has shown." https://t.co/pXCXU73LUi

[Dave Baker @fully_baked]

There’s a driver we just passed on this freeway who has a trumpet. And yes hes playing 🫣. My Uber driver and I just looked at each other and we’re like “so that happened”

[Dave Baker @fully_baked]

@Keir_Starmer The only change that matters is proportional representation!

[Anon Opin. @anon_opin]

The continuing resentment on the losing sides of the Brexit and Indyref referendums proves that a 50% of votes is a poor finishing line.
Since non-voters basically endorse the status quo, those wanting change should have to reach 50% of the electorate, not 50% of the votes cast.

[Anon Opin. @anon_opin]

In an era when almost all household bills are online, demanding a physical utility bill as proof of address is fucking ridiculous.

[Dave Baker @fully_baked]

@OpenUniversity Oh. And thank you.

[Dave Baker @fully_baked]

Hey @OpenUniversity, why is paste disabled on the password field on your sign up form? For security and accessibility this is really annoying. Many folks use tools like 1Password to manage passwords now. Disabling paste prevents them working!

[Dave Baker @fully_baked]

@OpenUniversity Not currently. Did study with you a while back (~15 years maybe 🫣)

[Dave Baker @fully_baked]

@destiny_thememe Honestly this fight was the closest I’ve come to quitting for good.

[Stacie Taylor ⚡️ @the_real_stacie]

ATTENTION plz 🫣😭❤️

[Josie @javavvitch]

DO NOT PUT COMPANY CODE IN CHATGPT.

YOU ABOUT TO GET *FIRED*

[Dave Baker @fully_baked]

@secondfret

[Dave Baker @fully_baked]

@ynab LOVE the new Budget Together offering! The one thing I didn't see in your FAQ's was if/how two users can merge their accounts into one. My wife and I are avid YNAB users, so if we took advantage of this would want to keep everything each of us has already set up!