  More Middle London bilge courtesy of the M25 Daily Mail 3AM 's on-going spat with the urlLink Trinity Mirror Group is a war on many fronts. One personal front is my on-going irritation at the decline of another newspaper, the London urlLink Evening Standard . The Standard , as I've mentioned on here before, is the capital's only daily paper -- unless you count urlLink Metro (the free paper given to commuters). The Standard and Metro are owned by urlLink Associated Newspapers , home of the dreaded urlLink Daily Mail (reactionary rag, home to reactionary columnists Simon Heffer and Melanie Phillips).
Others at 3AM urlLink have written of their own loathing for the Standard and Hari Kunzru's refusal of a Mail -sponsored literary award is well-known. The content for all three titles verges on the identical -- scaremongering over the Atkins Diet, asylum-seekers and the Congestion Charge. The Standard , like its organ of Middle England sibling the Mail , now exists to promote a hegemonic vision of how others should lead their lives -- no deviation in moral standards and deference to celebrities and the Establishment. The London the Standard represents and promotes differs marginally from the Middle England the Mail attempts to preserve.
Unlike readers of the Mail , the Standard 's readership are more likely to have black and gay acquaintances, therefore the prejudice is toned down immediately and the political coverage tends to concentrate on Mayor-bashing and opining about Council Tax rises. So the London of the Standard is the London of Zadie Smith, Tony Parsons and Nick Hornby -- safe, recognisable and slightly more 'street' than the Mail 's Middle England triumvirate of Jilly Cooper, Ken Follett and Andy McNabb.
While the Mail 's readers are likely to opt for a Sunday visit to the garden centre, the Standard 's key demographic prefers a warm goat's cheese salad in All Bar One before watching the rugby -- compare the coverage of Jonny Wilkinson to that of Alan Titchmarsh. Today's Standard comes with a free urlLink 'Best Pubs in London' guide -- a nice gesture to the capital's drinking classes, you might argue. Au contraire, my friend. The guide is front-loaded with a best of the Oirish pubs section -- topical given that it's St Patrick's Day tomorrow and every reader is guaranteed a free pint of Guinness, thanks to the Standard (just don't forget to raise your glass to a Steve Norris victory in the June mayoral elections). That'll be good for the Craic then -- fortunate given that pubs in Dublin's Temple Bar are banning parties of English people these days. The rest of the guide contains the run-down on 'historical pubs', 'pubs that rock' and 'gay and lesbian pubs' (that's the 'diversity' box ticked then -- can you imagine a Mail guide of this sort with that in though? ) -- with some glaring omissions. The historical pubs section wilfully neglects the likes of The Fitzroy Tavern and Gordon's wine bar, whereas the pubs that rock section fails to live up to its name by not mentioning either The Ship or The Intrepid Fox on Wardour Street.
There's no All Bar One/Pitcher and Piano/Slug and Lettuce... but most Standard readers will know where they are already... and then I noticed, most of the pubs are located around West London. Just gives me another excuse to dislike the place, I suppose. Anyhow, that Ken Livingstone... he's a right extremist/up Tony Blair's arse and as for that Atkins Diet, it gives you Cancer apparently. 
