Nick Johnston
@nifjnick.bsky.social
Project Support at Queen's University Belfast
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nick-Johnston-5?ev=hdr_xprf
& Ed Admin for @jrlepp.bsky.social
Views are personal and not those of my employers or funders
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nick-Johnston-5?ev=hdr_xprf
& Ed Admin for @jrlepp.bsky.social
Views are personal and not those of my employers or funders
Pinned
Nick Johnston
@nifjnick.bsky.social
· Aug 31
The Hokey Cokey in the style of Mariah Carey!
YouTube video by BBC
www.youtube.com
Public Service Announcement:
If you would like even a 5 minute break from the world, pop on to YouTube and add "ISIHAC" to the search box.
"I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue" is pure joy, and has been running on the BBC for more than 50 years.
An example (watch to the end):
www.youtube.com/shorts/Ity43...
If you would like even a 5 minute break from the world, pop on to YouTube and add "ISIHAC" to the search box.
"I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue" is pure joy, and has been running on the BBC for more than 50 years.
An example (watch to the end):
www.youtube.com/shorts/Ity43...
Reposted by Nick Johnston
Dear Cyril Ramaphosa, what an exceptional year for our 🇪🇺🇿🇦 partnership.
One that is truly delivering for both sides, and for the greater good.
Tomorrow, we host the final pledging event of our Scaling Up Renewables in Africa campaign.
With the aim to power a clean future for the continent.
One that is truly delivering for both sides, and for the greater good.
Tomorrow, we host the final pledging event of our Scaling Up Renewables in Africa campaign.
With the aim to power a clean future for the continent.
November 20, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Dear Cyril Ramaphosa, what an exceptional year for our 🇪🇺🇿🇦 partnership.
One that is truly delivering for both sides, and for the greater good.
Tomorrow, we host the final pledging event of our Scaling Up Renewables in Africa campaign.
With the aim to power a clean future for the continent.
One that is truly delivering for both sides, and for the greater good.
Tomorrow, we host the final pledging event of our Scaling Up Renewables in Africa campaign.
With the aim to power a clean future for the continent.
When @garyseconomics.bsky.social talks, more people in general should listen
It’s time for the super-rich to pay up, not working people. Will the Chancellor Rachel Reeves listen?
A 2% annual tax on net wealth above £10 million could raise £24 billion every single year.
Join us: bit.ly/TaxWealthNow
#TaxWealthNotWork
#TaxTheSuperRich
A 2% annual tax on net wealth above £10 million could raise £24 billion every single year.
Join us: bit.ly/TaxWealthNow
#TaxWealthNotWork
#TaxTheSuperRich
November 20, 2025 at 12:00 PM
When @garyseconomics.bsky.social talks, more people in general should listen
Reposted by Nick Johnston
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Well done, Staffordshire University. Daylight robbery, no academic standards.
Way to go to make sure students will avoid you.
Well done, Staffordshire University. Daylight robbery, no academic standards.
Way to go to make sure students will avoid you.
‘We could have asked ChatGPT’: students fight back over course taught by AI
Staffordshire students say signs material was AI-generated included suspicious file names and rogue voiceover accent
www.theguardian.com
November 20, 2025 at 11:45 AM
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Well done, Staffordshire University. Daylight robbery, no academic standards.
Way to go to make sure students will avoid you.
Well done, Staffordshire University. Daylight robbery, no academic standards.
Way to go to make sure students will avoid you.
Reposted by Nick Johnston
Last call for the very last tickets for Alistair Barrie & Friends at @beamhertford.bsky.social TONIGHT! Amazing bill, amazing cause. 🩷
Tickets here: beamhertford.co.uk/whats-on/Z2-...
Tickets here: beamhertford.co.uk/whats-on/Z2-...
November 19, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Last call for the very last tickets for Alistair Barrie & Friends at @beamhertford.bsky.social TONIGHT! Amazing bill, amazing cause. 🩷
Tickets here: beamhertford.co.uk/whats-on/Z2-...
Tickets here: beamhertford.co.uk/whats-on/Z2-...
Reposted by Nick Johnston
Want a bit of hope?
Have a listen, and act.
Have a listen, and act.
I had a great conversation with the wonderful @zackpolanski.bsky.social on his podcast. Do please listen in. I don't think you'll have heard anything quite like it. And there's a LOT more here than the title suggests. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/h...
How Labour Negate Progressive Ideas Through ‘Divide and Rule’ | George Monbiot | Zack Polanski
Podcast Episode · Bold Politics with Zack Polanski · 19/11/2025 · 40m
podcasts.apple.com
November 19, 2025 at 11:32 AM
Want a bit of hope?
Have a listen, and act.
Have a listen, and act.
Scotland World Cup Squad 1982 - We Have A Dream
YouTube video by Hannah McLachlan
youtu.be
November 18, 2025 at 9:49 PM
Reposted by Nick Johnston
(🚨) BREAKING NEWS: President of the United States Defends Business Partner's Brutal Murder of a Washington Post Journalist on National Television; Having Orchestrated the Public Humiliation of Global Hero Volodymyr Zelensky in the Same Room Months Ago, Trump Says Criticizing Vile Despots Off-Limits
Trump claims slain journalist Khashoggi was ‘extremely controversial,’ defends Saudi crown prince | CNN Politics
President Donald Trump on Tuesday angrily dismissed a question about the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi, claiming the Saudi dissident journalist was “extremely controversial” and insisting the subject...
www.cnn.com
November 18, 2025 at 8:22 PM
(🚨) BREAKING NEWS: President of the United States Defends Business Partner's Brutal Murder of a Washington Post Journalist on National Television; Having Orchestrated the Public Humiliation of Global Hero Volodymyr Zelensky in the Same Room Months Ago, Trump Says Criticizing Vile Despots Off-Limits
New Open Access article:
Matthias Naumann & David Rudolph link the “right to energy” with the “right to the countryside”, calling for a more just and sustainable approach to rural change.
(Abstract in Alt Text too)
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Matthias Naumann & David Rudolph link the “right to energy” with the “right to the countryside”, calling for a more just and sustainable approach to rural change.
(Abstract in Alt Text too)
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
November 18, 2025 at 7:58 PM
New Open Access article:
Matthias Naumann & David Rudolph link the “right to energy” with the “right to the countryside”, calling for a more just and sustainable approach to rural change.
(Abstract in Alt Text too)
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Matthias Naumann & David Rudolph link the “right to energy” with the “right to the countryside”, calling for a more just and sustainable approach to rural change.
(Abstract in Alt Text too)
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Nick Johnston
Mehreen Khan picks up my and @acjsissons.bsky.social's paper for The Times. You can read it here getting-out-of-the-hole.uk
November 18, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Mehreen Khan picks up my and @acjsissons.bsky.social's paper for The Times. You can read it here getting-out-of-the-hole.uk
The whole thing reads like a plot for an episode of Colin from Portsmouth - @explodingheads.bsky.social are you listening? - but @monkemma.bsky.social has done the hard yards endangering her sense of reality so that we don't have to, so thank you!
Let’s have a look at a crazy Twitter to newspaper pipeline story and debunk as we go! 🔎👍🏼
16th Nov the “Britain is Broken” account shared the following post claiming “Tesco are no longer celebrating Christmas”
With a picture of their “Evergreen” Trees
2.2Million views to date🙄
🧵1/26
16th Nov the “Britain is Broken” account shared the following post claiming “Tesco are no longer celebrating Christmas”
With a picture of their “Evergreen” Trees
2.2Million views to date🙄
🧵1/26
November 18, 2025 at 4:11 PM
The whole thing reads like a plot for an episode of Colin from Portsmouth - @explodingheads.bsky.social are you listening? - but @monkemma.bsky.social has done the hard yards endangering her sense of reality so that we don't have to, so thank you!
Reposted by Nick Johnston
Read it here :) zeteo.com/p/labours-vi...
Labour’s Vile Appeasement of the Anti-Migrant Right Won’t Even ‘Work’
Stripping refugees of their jewelry is part of a cruel new anti-asylum plan by the British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood.
zeteo.com
November 17, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Read it here :) zeteo.com/p/labours-vi...
Reposted by Nick Johnston
Most asylum seekers arrive with their valuables long lost in bombed or abandoned homes, stolen, or sold to afford the dangerous clandestine passage to safety
The real thing of value to be snatched from refugees under these proposals is far more painful: their families & futures
Me, for @zeteo.com
The real thing of value to be snatched from refugees under these proposals is far more painful: their families & futures
Me, for @zeteo.com
November 17, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Most asylum seekers arrive with their valuables long lost in bombed or abandoned homes, stolen, or sold to afford the dangerous clandestine passage to safety
The real thing of value to be snatched from refugees under these proposals is far more painful: their families & futures
Me, for @zeteo.com
The real thing of value to be snatched from refugees under these proposals is far more painful: their families & futures
Me, for @zeteo.com
Reposted by Nick Johnston
A specific urgent useful thing to do - I hope Liz Kendall, Shabana Mahmood and Keir Starmer will consider - is for our elected government to prod + wake up regulators (Ofcom, EHRC) who are letting a mainstream platform X protect + defend the racial slur "paki" unlawfully
bsky.app/profile/sund...
bsky.app/profile/sund...
Have we entered a racism timewarp?
Why does X routinely defend the racist abuse that it has a legal duty to remove?
A binary choice: must we tolerate the use of "paki" as a racist slur in the Britain of 2025 - or will government act to Make Twitter Lawful Again?
www.easterneye.biz/uk-racism-nh...
Why does X routinely defend the racist abuse that it has a legal duty to remove?
A binary choice: must we tolerate the use of "paki" as a racist slur in the Britain of 2025 - or will government act to Make Twitter Lawful Again?
www.easterneye.biz/uk-racism-nh...
‘Social media ignores return of racial hate’
Expert slams online platforms for letting trolls get away scot-free
www.easterneye.biz
November 17, 2025 at 11:35 PM
A specific urgent useful thing to do - I hope Liz Kendall, Shabana Mahmood and Keir Starmer will consider - is for our elected government to prod + wake up regulators (Ofcom, EHRC) who are letting a mainstream platform X protect + defend the racial slur "paki" unlawfully
bsky.app/profile/sund...
bsky.app/profile/sund...
New foreign student enrollment in the US fell 17% this fall www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...
How foreign student enrollment is shifting in the U.S., in 6 charts
Foreign student enrollment in U.S. colleges has stalled, with a 17 percent decline in new students this fall after Trump policy changes, a key survey shows.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 17, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Fixing policy using an auction process is a h£ll of a cry for help from a supposedly competent government
My sense from the PLP this morning is that they essentially see a lot of this as an opening offer. No one thinks the jewellery policy etc will survive first contact with reality. However, that was also the view they took on welfare initially...
November 17, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Fixing policy using an auction process is a h£ll of a cry for help from a supposedly competent government
Reposted by Nick Johnston
People arriving here by small boat are desperate, often traumatised. Latest figures are 68% of boat arrivals granted asylum (see link)
The idea of the govt stripping people of their valuables & then hawking it off literally makes me sick to my stomach
migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/br...
The idea of the govt stripping people of their valuables & then hawking it off literally makes me sick to my stomach
migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/br...
Confiscating jewellery from survivors of a war zone makes you look like a fucking Nazi. And the obscene thing is, that is the intention. It's there to look appropriately harsh. Indecent. Filthy. A moral stain. And no-one of good character would have ever proposed such a thing in the first place.
November 17, 2025 at 11:46 AM
People arriving here by small boat are desperate, often traumatised. Latest figures are 68% of boat arrivals granted asylum (see link)
The idea of the govt stripping people of their valuables & then hawking it off literally makes me sick to my stomach
migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/br...
The idea of the govt stripping people of their valuables & then hawking it off literally makes me sick to my stomach
migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/br...
Reposted by Nick Johnston
To my students: Lean into skills AI amplifies, not ones it bulldozes. Frame good questions, scope problems, interpret messy data, apply judgment, explain clearly. The bot can autocomplete; you bring curiosity, context, and ethics.
November 16, 2025 at 5:46 PM
To my students: Lean into skills AI amplifies, not ones it bulldozes. Frame good questions, scope problems, interpret messy data, apply judgment, explain clearly. The bot can autocomplete; you bring curiosity, context, and ethics.
Reposted by Nick Johnston
During WW2 Churchill sent Jewish internees, Italian & German POWs by ship to Canada & Australia. Canadian officials robbed them of jewellery, watches etc on arrival. Today it’s going to be state sanctioned 🙄
November 17, 2025 at 9:30 AM
During WW2 Churchill sent Jewish internees, Italian & German POWs by ship to Canada & Australia. Canadian officials robbed them of jewellery, watches etc on arrival. Today it’s going to be state sanctioned 🙄
I count 37 posts in all, but they're all well worth reading!
(Likewise the essay - also in pdf should you desire - if that's more your thing)
(Likewise the essay - also in pdf should you desire - if that's more your thing)
New essay out today by me and @acjsissons.bsky.social - ‘Getting Britain out of the hole: a plan for the economy’. You can read the whole thing here getting-out-of-the-hole.uk
A chart mega-thread follows 🧵
A chart mega-thread follows 🧵
Getting Britain out of the hole
A plan for the UK economy
getting-out-of-the-hole.uk
November 17, 2025 at 9:02 AM
I count 37 posts in all, but they're all well worth reading!
(Likewise the essay - also in pdf should you desire - if that's more your thing)
(Likewise the essay - also in pdf should you desire - if that's more your thing)
Reposted by Nick Johnston
"Britain has failed to base its economic strategy on what it’s good at - tradeable services, science and tech, universities, niches in advanced manufacturing.
And since Brexit, it has been actively undermining its economic model, which is founded on openness to trade, ideas and people."
And since Brexit, it has been actively undermining its economic model, which is founded on openness to trade, ideas and people."
New essay out today by me and @acjsissons.bsky.social - ‘Getting Britain out of the hole: a plan for the economy’. You can read the whole thing here getting-out-of-the-hole.uk
A chart mega-thread follows 🧵
A chart mega-thread follows 🧵
Getting Britain out of the hole
A plan for the UK economy
getting-out-of-the-hole.uk
November 17, 2025 at 8:14 AM
"Britain has failed to base its economic strategy on what it’s good at - tradeable services, science and tech, universities, niches in advanced manufacturing.
And since Brexit, it has been actively undermining its economic model, which is founded on openness to trade, ideas and people."
And since Brexit, it has been actively undermining its economic model, which is founded on openness to trade, ideas and people."
@happytoast.co.uk
A slight deflection from the otherwise constant terrible news, but yesterday was the first episode of Box Of Delights in our house, which means the 6 week countdown to Christmas has started!
A slight deflection from the otherwise constant terrible news, but yesterday was the first episode of Box Of Delights in our house, which means the 6 week countdown to Christmas has started!
November 17, 2025 at 8:44 AM
@happytoast.co.uk
A slight deflection from the otherwise constant terrible news, but yesterday was the first episode of Box Of Delights in our house, which means the 6 week countdown to Christmas has started!
A slight deflection from the otherwise constant terrible news, but yesterday was the first episode of Box Of Delights in our house, which means the 6 week countdown to Christmas has started!
Reposted by Nick Johnston
I was tagged and asked to take a look at this claim - cos, well just look at it!🙄
Does it seem plausible that THE Trocadero is going to be turned into a Mosque?
It was pretty easy to debunk but I decided to do a deep dive into the reality AND the appalling press coverage
🧵
1/26
Does it seem plausible that THE Trocadero is going to be turned into a Mosque?
It was pretty easy to debunk but I decided to do a deep dive into the reality AND the appalling press coverage
🧵
1/26
November 16, 2025 at 11:38 AM
I was tagged and asked to take a look at this claim - cos, well just look at it!🙄
Does it seem plausible that THE Trocadero is going to be turned into a Mosque?
It was pretty easy to debunk but I decided to do a deep dive into the reality AND the appalling press coverage
🧵
1/26
Does it seem plausible that THE Trocadero is going to be turned into a Mosque?
It was pretty easy to debunk but I decided to do a deep dive into the reality AND the appalling press coverage
🧵
1/26
The whole thread above this -inc. answering someone who essentially asks "Aren't people are always going to people?"- leads us to this conclusion.
More people understanding that the bad guys already know how to exploit this could impel us to act faster rather than just wringing our hands in horror.
More people understanding that the bad guys already know how to exploit this could impel us to act faster rather than just wringing our hands in horror.
The point isn’t that people were ever calm and wise, it’s that the systems around us used to dampen emotional spikes, now they amplify them. Human nature is constant, but the information architecture is different, and that shift matters politically.
November 16, 2025 at 2:35 PM
The whole thread above this -inc. answering someone who essentially asks "Aren't people are always going to people?"- leads us to this conclusion.
More people understanding that the bad guys already know how to exploit this could impel us to act faster rather than just wringing our hands in horror.
More people understanding that the bad guys already know how to exploit this could impel us to act faster rather than just wringing our hands in horror.
Reposted by Nick Johnston
Governments and voters are both reacting to algorithm-shaped “public opinion,” not grounded priorities. Immigration feels urgent because platforms amplify fear, pulling parties into hollow performances of toughness. The far right reads that drift as confirmation it’s winning.
Not everyone is unhappy about the Government's descent into anti-refugee politics
November 16, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Governments and voters are both reacting to algorithm-shaped “public opinion,” not grounded priorities. Immigration feels urgent because platforms amplify fear, pulling parties into hollow performances of toughness. The far right reads that drift as confirmation it’s winning.
Post your favourite Star Trek character(s) wrong answers only
November 15, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Post your favourite Star Trek character(s) wrong answers only