Jamie Potter

Something very interesting happened today on the BBC Sport website. In the morning they reported on the racist abuse directed at the Dutch national team during their open training session in Krakow. They paraphrased Martin Lipton, chief football writer at … Continue reading →

On Friday evening Channel 4 News invited Baroness Susan Greenfield, a neuroscientist apparently, on to the show to discuss whether social media is bad for the brain, a debate prompted by a comment from Twitter’s co-founder, Biz Stone. Greenfield appeared … Continue reading →

On Friday night I joined scores of other volunteers across Hull, Grimsby and Scunthorpe to spend the evening sleeping rough. We did so to raise money for the YMCA’s youth homelessness program. At last year’s ‘Sleep Easy‘ event 75 people … Continue reading →

A short Facebook note I wrote while en route to a rally in Hull: I hear a lot of people say that the public sector are lucky and shouldn’t complain while others suffer too, that it’s not fair. They’re right, … Continue reading →

Where does John Humphreys get his fiersome reputation as an interviewer from? On this morning’s Today programme he was interviewing Ed Balls. I say inteviewing, it was more like an invitation for Balls to push his five point plan for … Continue reading →

One thing that’s struck me listening to Radio 4 during my commute is Robert Peston – and other presenters – regularly mentioning “the markets” when discussing the financial crisis. One thing I don’t hear though is who the markets are. … Continue reading →

The Press Association today carries a story about the Metropolitan Police announcement that they will have baton rounds available while policing the protests in London on November 9th. The Met said: “There are a range of tactics available if there … Continue reading →

I’ve just dug up a screen grab I took of a heated twitter exchange a few week ago I think is still worth sharing. No sooner had Gadaffi been killed and his bloodied corpse paraded across the internet, LabourList published … Continue reading →

It’s now been almost six months since Greg Knight MP published a newsletter containing a thoroughly misleading article about global warming . Given the continuing debate over renewable energy in East Yorkshire I wrote to him immediately to point out the errors in the article and ask for a correction. Weeks passed without reply and a [...]

“It could well be that the truth has finally caught up with them.” That was a barb from Greg Knight this week after two newspapers corrected their reporting on the sitting hours of MPs. It’s a shame the truth about climate change hasn’t caught up with Mr Knight, who is yet to apologise for publishing [...]

Our MP, Greg Knight, not one for answering emails promptly, if at all, appears not to appreciate phone calls from his constituents, if his use of a premium rate phone number is anything to go by. After hearing nothing in three months from our most honourable representative I thought I’d give his office a ring. [...]

The twelve towns to receive the first money in the Portas Pilots scheme have been announced to much fanfare, little critique and disappointment for Bridlington, which missed out. Market Rasen in Lincolnshire was the nearest to receive funding while Goole also failed to nab a £100,000 cash injection and a chance to appear on the [...]

One Bridlington resident has felt the full force of the Olympic security crackdown after receiving a warning from Humberside Police following a joke she made on Facebook. Helen Perry wrote on the Bridlington Free Press’ page that she was going to squirt the torch with a water pistol in protest at the lack of local [...]

The latest e-newsletter from Greg Knight has claimed the planet is no longer warming and may even be heading for a mini-ice age in what is a shameful abuse of climate science and statistics. The newsletter, sent by his senior parliamentary researcher, Matthew Thomas, contains the following story: The supposed consensus on man-made global warming [...]

Greg Knight last week voted with his Coalition bosses against releasing the risk assessment for the controversial Health and Social Care Bill The proposed changes will essentially open up the NHS to full-blooded privatisation and put at risk the principle of free health care. Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has so far refused to publish the [...]

Our Right Honourable MP, Greg Knight, earlier this month voted to bind cancer patients to the time limit for employment support allowance. This means that people with cancer who have been out of work for twelve months will now be means tested for this particular benefit irrespective of whether they are fit to work. Even [...]

Opponents to new wind turbines on Flamborough Head have stooped to a new low by lobbying the Heritage Lottery Fund to freeze funding for the Bempton RSPB centre, as reported in the Guardian. It’s quite apparent that Bempton Residents Against Turbines care little for the health of local bird populations and more for their selfish [...]

Last month I made the trip to Sheffield to practise with The Inhuman League in my first merby session. It’s been nearly a year since I started skating with HARD and while I only set out to become a ref and help my league on the sidelines, I have to admit I’ve slowly developed a [...]

Via Coilhouse, a great Pathé video of a phenomenon from the streets of Paris in 1923 that looks like a precursor to inline skates – “cycle skating”. I love the ingenuity, off-road capabilities (!) and the use of ski poles for propulsion. The bloke about a minute in has some silky skills too, though I’m not [...]

Short presentation I did for my team using graphics to explain pack definition. Defining the Pack View more from BeatMonkey

As many leagues will be holding their first bouts in 2012 I thought I’d post some advice on getting exposure in your local media. This can also apply to such things as looking for new members and hosting fundraisers – anything where you want a bit of publicity. One of the easiest ways to get [...]

Following the complete lack of any women on the shortlist for the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year award, The F Word blog has begun a series of posts throughout December highlighting the achievements and prowess of sportswomen who otherwise go unnoticed by the mainstream media. I contributed a piece about roller derby: If we’re [...]

This week I made a guest appearance on the 4th Whistle podcast where we talked in detail about the weekend’s world cup. One issue that came up was the various complaints about the quality of the live coverage. The feed going down was frustrating and a number of times I gave up and found something [...]

I joined Zebra Huddle a while ago but never fully immersed myself in it until this week. Now I’m wondering why I didn’t start sooner. The forum is a goldmine, a mecca for rules geeks and a wonderful community to boot. First of all there are the little things that get me giddy, like seeing [...]

This weekend gone I finally lost my spectator virginity when I travelled to Halifax to catch Hot Wheel Roller Derby’s first home bout against Newcastle Roller Girls. Despite having been skating since Easter I’ve not made it to a bout before because of either work or money woes. As Guinness like us to believe, good [...]

It’s been another whirlwind month in my life and things are stepping up with that roller derby thing. September saw me start a new job in York which has meant dropping out of one practice session a week because of the difficulty in getting to Hull straight from the office. Fortunately I can still make [...]