Natalie Marchant

Journalist, copywriter, blogger, photographer from Manchester/Vienna.

[William Dalrymple @DalrympleWill]

"Nationalism,” John Le Carre once said, is “quite different from patriotism. For nationalism you need enemies.”

[Natalie Marchant @taliena]

How about 'sorry' and accepting the fact it should have been spotted by those closest to him?

[Connor Gillies @ConnorGillies]

BREAKING: Nicola Sturgeon tells Irish audience “this has been the worst week of my life” after her husband Peter Murrell confessing to stealing £400k SNP cash.

“I’ve been deceived…mislead…lied to…& betrayed”.

Says she only found out about some items this week.

More @SkyNews

[vanya ✙ @eurovanya]

🇩🇰🇺🇦🇳🇴 Tanzschein is too fun to be last, keep zero points away from Austria please

[alexmassie @alexmassie]

Five-star story on How To Do Journalism from @HadleyFreeman in her Sunday Times column today. Trebles all round.

[Caroline Lucas @CarolineLucas]

I hope this isn’t true. There are times when it’s more important to put country before party. This is one of them. Burnham’s longstanding commitment to a fairer voting system could transform our democracy & counter dire threat of a Reform UK government https://t.co/PNfl5GnB0X

[Natalie Marchant @taliena]

Wear sunscreen 🎶

[Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute @RonaldReagan]

On this day in 1982, President Reagan delivered the commencement address at @EurekaCollege. For the #Classof2026, here's some presidential advice. 🎓

[Ash Sarkar @AyoCaesar]

One of the big broadcasters asked me to do some overnight punditry, in their central London studio at 4am.

The catch? Their fee was £50, and they wouldn't pay for a cab. So, at £30 each way, I'd be paying a tenner for the privilege.

Guys... how bad are your budget cuts?!

[Natalie Marchant @taliena]

@GJMarshy How about Glasgow?

[Gregg Carlstrom @glcarlstrom]

Even if the ceasefire holds, the Gulf war will leave a scar on commodities markets for months to come:

- 187 oil tankers and 15 LNG tankers are stuck in the Gulf, along with 1.9m tons of fertilizer on 41 cargo ships; with the strait still risky, it could take weeks to clear the backlog

- ships will hesitate to go in the other direction: no one wants to risk getting stuck in the Gulf if the ceasefire collapses

- even once traffic is moving, it will take three weeks for cargoes to reach Asia and four to six weeks to reach Europe

- many Gulf producers need to repair damage: at a big aluminum smelter in Abu Dhabi, for example, metal has soldified in the pots where it is usually smelted; restarting production could take a year

- the total bill for repairs could top $25bn https://t.co/LnAvei60oD

[Robert Colvile @rcolvile]

I'm generally a peaceable man, but whoever came up with Making Tax Digital For Income Tax needs to die in a fire.

[Natalie Marchant @taliena]

@BeeNetwork @Mikiebenj

[Natalie Marchant @taliena]

@BeeNetwork @Mikiebenj Really not helpful for trams running to Ashton so few and far between

[Sam Coates Sky @SamCoatesSky]

👀The Electoral Commission give Democracy Volunteers access to polling stations at election time. Only they and the police can go inside. They’ve just issued this report about “family voting” in Gorton and Denton:

Democracy Volunteers deployed four accredited election observers across the Gorton and Denton Westminster Parliamentary By-election today. The team attended 22 of the 45 polling stations in the constituency, spending between 30 and 45 minutes in each.

The observers worked in pairs using the international standard for election observation - the four eyes principle. Each team assessed several aspects of the polling process, from accessibility to issues around the integrity of the vote.

Staff were welcoming to the team and we would like to thank them for their time in accommodating our work.

The team assessed two significant aspects of electoral integrity - family voting (where two voters either confer, collude or direct each other on voting) which breaches the secret ballot. The team also assessed the impact of the requirement for voters to show ID before they are issued with a ballot paper.

2023 saw the enactment of the Ballot Secrecy Act, which made the practice of family voting more clearly a breach of the secret ballot, making it more enforceable by staff in polling stations. Signage is now available to discourage the practice. Signage was only seen in 45% of the polling stations observed.

The observer team saw family voting in 15 of the 22 polling stations observed, some 32 cases in total, nine cases in one polling station alone. The team observed a sample of 545 voters casting their votes - meaning 12% of those voters observed either caused or were affected by family voting.

Commenting John Ault, Director of Democracy Volunteers said;

‘Today we have seen concerningly high levels of family voting in Gorton and Denton. Based on our assessment of today’s observations, we have seen the highest levels of family voting at any election in our 10 year history of observing elections in the UK.’

‘We rarely issue a report on the night of an election, but the data we have collected today on family voting, when compared to other recent by-elections, is extremely high.’

‘In the other recent Westminster parliamentary by-election in Runcorn and Helsby we saw family voting in 12% of polling stations, affecting 1% of voters. In Gorton and Denton, we observed family voting in 68% of polling stations, affecting 12% of those voters observed.’

The team also observed cases of voters being turned away, however, in each case this was due to them not being a registered voter for Westminster elections, such as having EU citizenship, and only being allowed to vote in local elections.

The team also saw a number of voters taking photographs of their ballot papers and one voter being authorised to vote despite them already having been marked as voted earlier in the day.

Democracy Volunteers has informed elections staff at Manchester City Council about our findings today.

This Statement is now available on the Democracy Volunteers website HERE.
--

[Ben Riley-Smith @benrileysmith]

And another...
https://t.co/vDvZgoM2yb

[Ben Riley-Smith @benrileysmith]

Reform now has Boris Johnson’s…
- chancellor (Zahawi)
- communities sec (Jenrick)
- culture sec (Dorries)
- attorney general (Braverman)
- political sec (Kruger)
- skills minister (Jenkyns)
- Northern powerhouse minister (Berry)
- health minister (Caulfield)
- parliamentary private sec (Nici)
- assistant whip (Holloway)
- Scottish minister (Offord)

The old band getting back together

[Nick Bryant @NickBryantNY]

I suspect we might come to look on Mark Carney’s speech in Davos a little like Winston Churchill’s “iron curtain” speech in Fullerton in brilliantly articulating the threats of a new and different global age. It s worth reading in full.

https://t.co/wE54yja660

[Kate McCann @KateEMcCann]

There will be people who think this is deeply unfair, but it can’t be avoided anymore. You cannot do politics like this now - going on the radio or TV and using a clever form of words to avoid saying the thing you think will end your career. It doesn’t work and it hasn’t worked for a long time.

The career-ending thing isn’t saying “I broke that promise and I’m sorry, but here’s why I really think it’s the right thing to do…” It is repeatedly saying you did it without holding up your hands; in the process treating your audience like they’re daft and eroding trust so much that nobody listens to your actual argument. Why would you get a hearing for what you believe is right if you can’t show enough respect to admit your choice broke a promise?

No parent would accept that kind of apology from a child; why do some of our politicians still think voters should accept it from them? Trust people to give you a hearing and they’ll listen even when you admit mistakes - maybe even more then, because it is human.

[Bridget Brink @AmbBridgetBrink]

I served as our Ambassador in Ukraine for 3 years under Putin’s missiles and drones but resigned when Trump kept appeasing Putin. America does not bow to dictators. It’s not who we are.

Here's why this Trump-Putin so-called "peace plan" is a disaster:

[BBC Sport Scotland @BBCSportScot]

SOUND ON 🎧

This radio commentary from Alasdair Lamont!!! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

#BBCFootball

[Natalie Marchant @taliena]

Great! Now please sort out the awful ticketing system on the trams @AndyBurnhamGM @BeeNetwork

[Andy Burnham @AndyBurnhamGM]

BIG NEWS

On 7/12/25, GM sees the biggest change to rail services for 30+ years.

A new fairer, simpler fare system will come in across our 96 stations.

🐝 Singles will be half the price of returns
🐝 Tickets will be valid on any operator
🐝 Average fare will fall by 5.6%

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