JohnNicolson
@johnnicolson.bsky.social
Journalist. Scottish. European. Harvard & U of Glasgow alumnus. Harkness Fellow. Kennedy scholarship. Ex US Senate speechwriter, BBC & ITV news anchor and Member of Parliament. He/him.
http://www.youtube.com/@JohnNicolsonChannel
http://www.youtube.com/@JohnNicolsonChannel
New polling for Holyrood. Clear lead for @theSNP
Labour & #Reform fighting it out for third place. Tories & LibDems nowhere to be seen.
And #AlbaNotRising on 0 seats.
Polling: @NorstatUKPolls
Graphics: @ElectionMapsUK
Seat projection @BallotBoxScot
Labour & #Reform fighting it out for third place. Tories & LibDems nowhere to be seen.
And #AlbaNotRising on 0 seats.
Polling: @NorstatUKPolls
Graphics: @ElectionMapsUK
Seat projection @BallotBoxScot
January 18, 2026 at 4:47 PM
New polling for Holyrood. Clear lead for @theSNP
Labour & #Reform fighting it out for third place. Tories & LibDems nowhere to be seen.
And #AlbaNotRising on 0 seats.
Polling: @NorstatUKPolls
Graphics: @ElectionMapsUK
Seat projection @BallotBoxScot
Labour & #Reform fighting it out for third place. Tories & LibDems nowhere to be seen.
And #AlbaNotRising on 0 seats.
Polling: @NorstatUKPolls
Graphics: @ElectionMapsUK
Seat projection @BallotBoxScot
Disastrous polling for Starmer at minus 46 according to @OpiniumResearch in today’s @ObserverUK This places him lower than May, Sunak & Johnson at the same point in their premierships.
Emulating the right on race & immigration pleases neither Reform nor progressive voters.
Emulating the right on race & immigration pleases neither Reform nor progressive voters.
January 11, 2026 at 11:15 AM
Disastrous polling for Starmer at minus 46 according to @OpiniumResearch in today’s @ObserverUK This places him lower than May, Sunak & Johnson at the same point in their premierships.
Emulating the right on race & immigration pleases neither Reform nor progressive voters.
Emulating the right on race & immigration pleases neither Reform nor progressive voters.
Reform stretch their lead in England. Labour now in fourth place.
Scotland a very different picture with @theSNP way out in front.
Graphic: @LeftieStats
Polling: @FindoutnowUK
Scotland a very different picture with @theSNP way out in front.
Graphic: @LeftieStats
Polling: @FindoutnowUK
January 9, 2026 at 8:10 PM
Reform stretch their lead in England. Labour now in fourth place.
Scotland a very different picture with @theSNP way out in front.
Graphic: @LeftieStats
Polling: @FindoutnowUK
Scotland a very different picture with @theSNP way out in front.
Graphic: @LeftieStats
Polling: @FindoutnowUK
“We shed no tears about the end of his regime” Starmer says - missing the point entiteiy. Kidnapping foreign leaders to effect regime change is a flagrant breach of international law. www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/keir-s...
Keir Starmer Refuses To Condemn Trump's Venezuela Takeover As A Breach Of International Law
"We shed no tears" over the end of Nicolas Maduro's regime, the PM said.
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk
January 4, 2026 at 1:56 PM
“We shed no tears about the end of his regime” Starmer says - missing the point entiteiy. Kidnapping foreign leaders to effect regime change is a flagrant breach of international law. www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/keir-s...
Chilling by the fire with my beau.
January 2, 2026 at 7:34 PM
Chilling by the fire with my beau.
Happy Ne’er Day from the two of us. Wishing you peace, happiness & love in 2026.
“Let our three-voiced country
Sing in a new world
Joining the other rivers without dogma
But with friendliness to all around her.”
‘The Beginning of a New Song’ : Iain Crichton Smith.
“Let our three-voiced country
Sing in a new world
Joining the other rivers without dogma
But with friendliness to all around her.”
‘The Beginning of a New Song’ : Iain Crichton Smith.
January 1, 2026 at 1:04 PM
Happy Ne’er Day from the two of us. Wishing you peace, happiness & love in 2026.
“Let our three-voiced country
Sing in a new world
Joining the other rivers without dogma
But with friendliness to all around her.”
‘The Beginning of a New Song’ : Iain Crichton Smith.
“Let our three-voiced country
Sing in a new world
Joining the other rivers without dogma
But with friendliness to all around her.”
‘The Beginning of a New Song’ : Iain Crichton Smith.
“Open the door for the auld year
It is the pairtin-time
Open the door for the new year
And lat the bairn win hame.
Bundle your winter’d joy and grief
On the back o’ the year that’s dune
Open your hert for the new life
And lat the bairn come in.”
Poem for Hogmanay : William
Soutar
It is the pairtin-time
Open the door for the new year
And lat the bairn win hame.
Bundle your winter’d joy and grief
On the back o’ the year that’s dune
Open your hert for the new life
And lat the bairn come in.”
Poem for Hogmanay : William
Soutar
December 31, 2025 at 12:33 PM
“Open the door for the auld year
It is the pairtin-time
Open the door for the new year
And lat the bairn win hame.
Bundle your winter’d joy and grief
On the back o’ the year that’s dune
Open your hert for the new life
And lat the bairn come in.”
Poem for Hogmanay : William
Soutar
It is the pairtin-time
Open the door for the new year
And lat the bairn win hame.
Bundle your winter’d joy and grief
On the back o’ the year that’s dune
Open your hert for the new life
And lat the bairn come in.”
Poem for Hogmanay : William
Soutar
Blow your nose, pull up your socks, and shut up. You don’t have to be a grim old stoic, either. Your life could be such fun. Now run along and enjoy yourself. And let’s try to make this a HAPPY new year.”
Christopher Isherwood diaries. #hogmanay #newyear #Isherwood #christopherisherwood
Christopher Isherwood diaries. #hogmanay #newyear #Isherwood #christopherisherwood
December 31, 2025 at 10:46 AM
Blow your nose, pull up your socks, and shut up. You don’t have to be a grim old stoic, either. Your life could be such fun. Now run along and enjoy yourself. And let’s try to make this a HAPPY new year.”
Christopher Isherwood diaries. #hogmanay #newyear #Isherwood #christopherisherwood
Christopher Isherwood diaries. #hogmanay #newyear #Isherwood #christopherisherwood
I’ve been a picture addict since I was a kid, picking up sketches from jumble sales, markets and auctions. I’m selling these two by the great Scottish artist John Bellany next month at Lyon & Turnbull. One is a rare early self portrait.
December 27, 2025 at 11:25 AM
I’ve been a picture addict since I was a kid, picking up sketches from jumble sales, markets and auctions. I’m selling these two by the great Scottish artist John Bellany next month at Lyon & Turnbull. One is a rare early self portrait.
“The only post–World War II president to match Trump’s current poor job approval at this point in his presidency was Trump in his first term.” x.com/nymag/status...
x.com
December 24, 2025 at 11:21 AM
“The only post–World War II president to match Trump’s current poor job approval at this point in his presidency was Trump in his first term.” x.com/nymag/status...
Karl’s first Christmas tree. He’s fascinated!
December 23, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Karl’s first Christmas tree. He’s fascinated!
A few winters ago #onthisday my beau & I were travelling by horse drawn sleigh through the snow to stay at King Charles’s beautifully restored house in #Transylvania
December 22, 2025 at 3:33 PM
A few winters ago #onthisday my beau & I were travelling by horse drawn sleigh through the snow to stay at King Charles’s beautifully restored house in #Transylvania
Goodbye to Berlin.
December 15, 2025 at 12:39 PM
Goodbye to Berlin.
Visiting a surviving stretch of the Berlin Wall with the excavated SS and Gestapo cellars behind. Crowds of teenagers in the Topography of Terror Museum file silently past the photos of children murdered. #Berlin
December 15, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Visiting a surviving stretch of the Berlin Wall with the excavated SS and Gestapo cellars behind. Crowds of teenagers in the Topography of Terror Museum file silently past the photos of children murdered. #Berlin
Wee absinthe aperitif at the #AbsinthDepot in #Berlin Delightfully louche.
December 13, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Wee absinthe aperitif at the #AbsinthDepot in #Berlin Delightfully louche.
Sad to read the news about Stanley Baxter. He thought no one would love him if they knew he was gay. When he came out in his 90s he discovered a new generation loved him just as much. Here’s a wee piece I wrote for the @alloatiser Rest in peace Stanley. #ParliamoGlasgow #LGBT
December 12, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Sad to read the news about Stanley Baxter. He thought no one would love him if they knew he was gay. When he came out in his 90s he discovered a new generation loved him just as much. Here’s a wee piece I wrote for the @alloatiser Rest in peace Stanley. #ParliamoGlasgow #LGBT
The genius that was Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Died on this day in 1928 aged only 60. If he could only have known how revered he was to become in the century to come….
December 10, 2025 at 10:51 AM
The genius that was Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Died on this day in 1928 aged only 60. If he could only have known how revered he was to become in the century to come….
Do you send Christmas cards? I do. I like keeping the tradition alive. This year I’m sending these wee 1960s originals I found still in their original packaging on eBay. My Dad loved sending tiny cards with robins to my Mum so these make me think of them both.
December 7, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Do you send Christmas cards? I do. I like keeping the tradition alive. This year I’m sending these wee 1960s originals I found still in their original packaging on eBay. My Dad loved sending tiny cards with robins to my Mum so these make me think of them both.
“The Liz Truss Show review – hapless ravings from a cupboard : I don’t know if you’ve ever spent 40 seconds looking at Liz Truss wordlessly blinking and gulping, but it’s a genuinely disturbing sight. I wouldn’t wish it on anybody.”
December 6, 2025 at 11:32 AM
“The Liz Truss Show review – hapless ravings from a cupboard : I don’t know if you’ve ever spent 40 seconds looking at Liz Truss wordlessly blinking and gulping, but it’s a genuinely disturbing sight. I wouldn’t wish it on anybody.”
There seem to be no sewer into which transphobes will not dive. They hate prominent progressive barrister Jolyon Maugham & his Good Law Project. Here’s one of them speculating that he might have “secretly enjoyed” being raped as a child.
December 5, 2025 at 6:16 PM
There seem to be no sewer into which transphobes will not dive. They hate prominent progressive barrister Jolyon Maugham & his Good Law Project. Here’s one of them speculating that he might have “secretly enjoyed” being raped as a child.