Jim Nicholson (UK politician)

Infobox MEP
name = Jim Nicholson
honorific-suffix =MEP


width =
parliament = European
constituency_MP =Northern Ireland
term_start = 1989
term_end=
predecessor = Ian Paisley, John Hume & John Taylor, Baron Kilclooney
successor =Incumbent
birth_date=birth date and age|1945|1|29
birth_place=Armagh, Northern Ireland
constituency_MP2= Newry and Armagh
term_start2 =1983
term_end2 =1985
party =Ulster Unionist Party
spouse =
children = 7
religion =Presbyterian

James Frederick "Jim" Nicholson (born 29 January 1945, Armagh) is a Northern Ireland unionist politician who is currently a Member of the European Parliament.

A member of Armagh council between 1977 and 1997, Nicholson was elected as an Ulster Unionist Party MP for Newry and Armagh in 1983 and, along with all other unionist MPs, resigned from the House of Commons in December 1985 as part of a wider protest against the Anglo-Irish Agreement of that year and to secure a renewed mandate from their electors. A by-election to fill his seat took place in January 1986.

Mr Nicholson, who was defending the nationalist-majority Newry & Armagh constituency in the by-election, was the only resigning MP not to re-win his seat, losing it to Seamus Mallon of the moderate nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) in the by-election. He contested the seat again at the 1987 Westminster election but demographics in the area had shifted against unionism; nationalist candidates have held it ever since.

In 1989, he became a Member of the European Parliament for Northern Ireland. He retained this seat in 1994, 1999 and 2004 although never reaching a quota of first preference votes. On each occasion, he was re-elected with the help of transfers from other candidates, under Northern Ireland's EU election system of proportional representation using the single transferable vote.

The 2004 result was the lowest ever polled by the Ulster Unionist Party in any province-wide election until the 2007 Assembly Elections. Despite this, transfers from other candidates (principally Jim Allister) [ [http://www.ark.ac.uk/elections/fe04.htm The 2004 European Election ] ] enabled his election over the SDLP candidate for the final seat, which had previously been held by John Hume.

Mr Nicholson is a member of the European Democrats wing of the European People's Party - European Democrats group, the largest group in the Parliament, a Eurosceptic wing which also contains the UK's Conservative MEPs. He is also one of six Quaestors in the European Parliament, becoming the first ever MEP from Northern Ireland to hold such a senior position when elected on July 21, 2004; he was re-elected in 2007.

Jim Nicholson is the father of seven children. His son, Paul Nicholson is Vice President of SAIL FUNDS in Hong Kong.

References

External links

* [http://www.uup.org/elected-representatives/europe/index.php Official UUP biography]
* [http://www.europarl.eu.int/members/public/geoSearch/view.do?country=GB&partNumber=1&zone=Northern+Ireland&language=EN&id=1318 European Parliament profile]