iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 35m

Bloke-down-the-boozer level insight right there. Budgets, risk-based frameworks, reactive maintenance, cyclical maintenance, street works management? But why bother with detail when a few rambling aphorisms will deliver clicks.

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 5h

David, you forget that the Iranian regime has only HOURS* left. *Googles how many hours in a decade

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Gah…even the French trying to hoover up US clicks: ‘Labor’

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

That’s true, but a ‘plot’ to ‘steal’ something something will surface and it will involve the, er, ‘secret deal’ etc etc.

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Whatever is chosen, it’ll take a lot more than a policy tweak; our (lack of) track record means the capacity to deliver large-scale infrastructure is a challenge, so is procurement.

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

That’s a huge ask given recent history, David. Tempted to say that high-speed train has sailed, but that would be a cheap shot unbecoming of serious debate…

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Really sorry to hear that, Matt. Hell of a lot of time for Mark Hughes of course, but the new pod is looking like a fairly recent ‘history’ so far. As someone who enjoyed visiting the Jim Clark Museum up at Duns during the summer, I don’t think that era should be forgotten.

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

It’s both tediously unoriginal and plain tedious - you don’t need to read it to know what position it’s going to take and the last time I read an editorial comment it was blinkered, sub-Tufton Street gymnastics.

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Not a Times fan and haven’t been for a while; a shadow of what it was - at times, indistinguishable from the MailoGraph.

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Exactly that. Richard J. Evan’s trilogy tells you all you need to know.

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Tedious, predictable noise. The most powerful diplomatic response would be to ignore the old fraud.

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

‘Watching’? I think you’ll find that the radiogram was the proper medium for civilised children, thank you very much.

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Reposted by @richardbaker.bsky.social

By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 04/09/2026

Amazon's own balance sheet presents the most compelling evidence that we are stuck in the Enshittocene, the era in which everything is turning into a pile of shit, because the worst ideas of the worst people now make the most money. 1/

Hieronymus Bosch's 'The Conjuror,' a painting depicting a medieval con artist playing a shell game for an audience of astonished peasant rubes. The image has been altered: the conman now has Jeff Bezos's grinning head, and the mouths of all the peasants have been replaced with inverted Amazon 'Smile' logos, so they are now frowning.

Image:
Steve Jurvestson (modified)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jeff_Bezos%27_iconic_laugh_crop.jpg

CC BY 2.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

211546655

richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Do it as a script for Only Murders in the Building?

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Exactly that. It’s not meant for analysis; it’s meant for today’s vibes, which are themselves part of an endless journey to a place that will never exist because it needs to keep moving. Downwards.

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Looks like a foppish teenager. Amazed he hasn’t got a smartphone.

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Disappointed not to see a reference to stakeholders.

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Bert garden reaction to all phones going off: “Last orders!”. Otherwise, zero f****s were given…

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Typical Labour. Lights going out in the middle of summer.

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

It’s not the first time policymakers have avoided this kind of historic transition. Mining communities? Immediate capital investment - poor value. Decades of health and welfare spending - controllable.

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

I particularly love the seamless leap from the lack of state capacity to toppling the state without asking what the cause of the lack of capacity is. A minor detail, of course.

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Why Burnham’s Britain is doomed (copyright all lobby hacks)

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Wait…is this 2026 politics, or a remake of The Comic Strip presents:

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

I’ve also heard that Donald Trump personally led the assault on the Falaise Gap, though I’m struggling with the source.

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Presumably he’s thinking that Pearl Harbor wasn’t good for real estate values.

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Well yes, but social media doesn’t do memory. Everything is new, fresh, radical, ground-breaking and other cliches. Until tomorrow.

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Yes but that’s yesterday’s tweet. We need to reinvent the wheel again so this week’s social media push has got some fresh meat* to feed off. *Please check packaging for actual ingredients. May contain tedium.

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

The Northern Ha’penny. You read it here first.

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

There is an issue with the resources & reach of regional media now, but it still speaks for important demographics. And much as slickly-produced TikToks, Reels and owned channels matter, beware of perceptions about exclusiveness and monitoring the wrong metrics.

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

I’d go for the April/May transition and December. Both have their own emotional warmth.

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Pity there wasn’t a Johnson version: “Let me do it. I haven’t told you this, but I used to be a Grade A bullshitter. I still am!”

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

As per one of my favourite political cartoons:

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

From praising 1923 to criticising a supposedly ‘backward-looking’ agenda. In the same post. That’s Gove. And it’s dreary hack work.

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Same applies to the financial crisis. Still around, rarely acknowledged.

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

He was bitter. He took it out on generations. Hugh Bonneville is back as Philip Larkin in the screen sensation… They fuck you up your Mum and Dad.

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

I mean, the per par cliche count is off the scale there.

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

While we’re at it, don’t forget the off Broadway production of Statler & Waldorf as Castor & Pollux.

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

They should do it in Woolley Edge Services on the M1 near Wakey. Keep it real.

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Compare and contrast… The first section of the Midland Mainline from St Pancras to Bedford, electrified 43 year ago. The whiff of diesel around Nottingham Station in 2026.

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

He’s building some contracts for some mates and there’ll be a useless facility needing loads of snagging at the end of it, but insert next griftingly obvious stunt here.

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Burnham’s emphasis on giving power back to the “place where you live” is interesting. Framing it around local identity is good, but that’s about to get complicated: some of the districts and boroughs whose names have defined places for decades are about to disappear under the LGR process.

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

This is what happens when pol eds visit the regions.

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Not exactly making headlines, but it really should be: a fundamental change in the way communities across England are going to be governed and served and in what they’re going to be called - www.gov.uk/government/n...

gov.uk

14 more areas to benefit from streamlined local services

Changes will simplify local government to unlock the path towards devolution and drive economic growth

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Just bring back the Weeping Sea Devils controlled by a populist Master and all will be well.

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richardbaker.bsky.social @richardbaker.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

UK regions: So, there’s this problem with regional inequality and it’s being going on for, well, decades and it’s just a bit obvious now… The Centre: Yes but reasons…

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