Author | Lightnews

Tom Nicholls

@tomnicholls.bsky.social

1K followers 890 following 1.8K posts

Research Software Engineer, occasional photographer, amateur parent, taxi driver to developing humans. Opinions self-inflicted. Londoner cast adrift in the north west. From Choreography and Merriment. Lancaster, UK

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Tom Nicholls @tomnicholls.bsky.social · 8h

Looks truly terrifying. I'll check it out later.

Tom Nicholls @tomnicholls.bsky.social · 8h

Looks frightening

1 1

Reposted by Tom Nicholls

Michael Shaw @mrmichaelshaw.bsky.social · 1d

But I do suspect the differences in press attention, along with the lack of social media and rolling news, are why people forget how much worse and more prevalent violence was in the 1990s.

I don’t recall commentators freaking out that they were terrified to go to supermarkets.

2 25 88

Reposted by Tom Nicholls

Michael Shaw @mrmichaelshaw.bsky.social · 1d

It’s fascinating comparing the front page coverage of the Huntingdon train attack (below) with how the British press treated another case 30 years ago.

I’m referring to the 1995 Netto supermarket attack in Birmingham in which a man stabbed 10 people, killing one of them.

7 91 120

Reposted by Tom Nicholls

Thomas I-G @thomasig.bsky.social · 2d

The thing that really gets me about the "it never used to be like this" is they have just forgotten the UK spent nearly four decades in civil conflict including hundreds of bombings in the capital.

2 1 20

Reposted by Tom Nicholls

Jim Daly @jimdalycomedy.bsky.social · 3d

My FA Cup pumpkin. 🏆🎃

1 4 40

Reposted by Tom Nicholls

Jonny Morris @jonnymorris.bsky.social · 3d

Having posts prioritised by algorithm is what they do on twitter and Facebook and is one of the reasons we left. If you foist it on us here, it will not be popular.

5 4 180

Reposted by Tom Nicholls

Michael Cummins Photography @michaelcummins.co.uk · 4d

In a dark wood somewhere

In a dark wood near Sherwood Forest - heavy fog lingers and November leaves cling on for dear life.

Cascade of autumn leaves in a dark wood with fog

Heavy fog lingers in a dark wood with autumn trees

2 11

Tom Nicholls @tomnicholls.bsky.social · 4d

Make AI slop entertaining (at least)

Dr Farbod @emergencybod.medsky.social · 4d

It's happening.

Tom Nicholls @tomnicholls.bsky.social · 4d

When I gave up my Crystal Palace season ticket in 2008 just before moving north, if you'd told me that Palace would beat Liverpool 3 times in the first 3 months of 2025, I would have asked you how many divisions Liverpool had been relegated.

1 2

Tom Nicholls @tomnicholls.bsky.social · 4d

👏👏👏

1 1

Tom Nicholls @tomnicholls.bsky.social · 5d

I'm currently appealing a Delay Repay claim from *5 months ago*. Thank goodness for ontimetrains.co.uk, without which it would be difficult to remember exactly which hour/minute I made the multiple connections of the journey in question.

On Time Trains

Find out how often your train journey is on time, look up recent services eligible for delay repay claims and check your station rankings.

ontimetrains.co.uk

Tom Nicholls @tomnicholls.bsky.social · 5d

Do they really think their product will survive public scrutiny? So naive...

Tom Nicholls @tomnicholls.bsky.social · 6d

Yes, of course, ET was probably the watershed moment.

Tom Nicholls @tomnicholls.bsky.social · 6d

My 1970s memory of halloween is the occasional competition to draw a witch or a ghost etc, but nothing substantial. I think adults were slightly wary of any possible anti-christian connotation. I definitely didn't know what trick-or-treating was.

Guy Fawkes night was relatively huge though.

Graeme Swanson @swansonian.bsky.social · 6d

This is interesting to me because a lot of people of my mum's generation insist we didn't have Halloween in Britain in the 1970s.

Why Don't YouTube? @whydontyoutube.bsky.social · 6d

50 YEARS AGO TODAY: a Words And Pictures Halloween special, with a scary pumpkin and an equally scary Henry Woolf.

Tom Nicholls @tomnicholls.bsky.social · 6d

I've been thinking about what drives crime to become a prominent political issue and have concluded in a completely-without-evidence way that it must be correlated with the amount of true crime programming on the telly.

Your move, scientists.

Tom Nicholls @tomnicholls.bsky.social · 6d

This is an awful story, but what a courageous mother.

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

‘No more children are going to die like you’: how Sheffield mother kept her promise to boys killed by father 11 years ago

Claire Throssell has been central to the campaign to repeal parental contact laws following the deaths of her two sons at the hands of their father in 2014

www.theguardian.com

Tom Nicholls @tomnicholls.bsky.social · 6d

But 15 mins is an incredibly low bar, I agree.

Tom Nicholls @tomnicholls.bsky.social · 6d

Yes, healthy people walk more. No surprises in this paper as far as I can see.

Reposted by Tom Nicholls

Sophie Carr @sophiecarr.bsky.social · 6d

Glad I wasn't due to fly to #Iceland today - most of the flights were cancelled with heavy early snows. Quite unusual. Hoping things will be back to normal for my flight in 72 hours' time (yes, I'm counting!) so I can go and look for some more weird & wonderful things like this :)

Grey pebbles on a black sand beach. Each pebble has some sand dotted on it, and sits on a little peak, sculpted by the wind.

16 17 190

Tom Nicholls @tomnicholls.bsky.social · 6d

Super image - enjoy your next trip, Sophie!

1 2

Reposted by Tom Nicholls

dag @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 14d

“When we realised these jewels were only stolen to inflate the share price of a company whose entire value relies on the wholesale theft of other people’s art, we had no choice but grant immunity,”

Genius from @waterfordwhispers.bsky.social

waterfordwhispersnews.com/2025/10/20/l...

Louvre Thieves Given Immunity After Confirming Jewels Stolen For Purpose Of Training AI Software

FRENCH POLICE have immediately ended all efforts to recover priceless Napoleon-era jewellery from the Louvre taken in a daring heist after it emerged the jewels were merely stolen for the purposes of ...

waterfordwhispersnews.com

5 210 470

Reposted by Tom Nicholls

Phil Tinline @philtinline.bsky.social · 13d

If I were running Labour comms I would commission an app called 'Will the Tories/Reform deport you?' then let the reactions on TikTok and Instagram do their work.

74 320 1.4K

Reposted by Tom Nicholls

Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 12d

Wow! Democracy for Sale has been nominated for a British Journalism Award 🎉

Amazing to see how far we've come in such a short time.

Am so proud of @jennacorderoy.bsky.social and @lucasamin.bsky.social (and me, tbh! 😊)

Huge thanks to our supporters!
pressgazette.co.uk/press-gazett...

British Journalism Awards 2025: Finalists revealed

Press Gazette is proud to reveal the shortlist for the British Journalism Awards 2025, with links to all of the winning work.

pressgazette.co.uk

7 21 140

Tom Nicholls @tomnicholls.bsky.social · 12d

📌