You will have seen the news already. Danny Baker has been fired for a racist tweet about the new royal baby.

I’ve already looked at some of the comments and the debate online, and also Danny’s defence. “I didn’t mean it to be racist, I’d have said it about any posh baby being born” (paraphrased). Much of what is said in his defence is about intent. The man’s being funny, he makes lots of monkey jokes, he didn’t mean it. He’s not a racist.

For me, it’s a bit like the handball law in football. If you’re trying to prove intent, it’s impossible. Did that player mean to handball it? Did Danny Baker mean to be racist? But the point is the tweet IS racist. The baby has an ethnic minority heritage, and the discussion around the marriage of Meghan and Harry and the fact that she’s black, has been picked over by many. Look at the tweet yourself. How can this not be racist?

Whether or not he intended it to be, the fact of the matter it is.

So this speaks to my first rule for social media. It’s a simple one. Don’t be an idiot (censored for a family audience). Think before you tweet and, if you have any doubts, don’t. It’s not difficult.