The London Standard really doesn't like London

London’s no-longer-Evening Standard has taken a turn in recent years, with a string of right wing editors and an editorial line increasingly at odds with the overwhelmingly Labour-voting city. But even its dwindling number of editorial staff were surprised by a comment piece suggesting London’s high level of immigration means it should be stripped of capital status.

The piece by David Goodhart, an author at the right wing Policy Exchange think tank, bemoans the problems he claims are caused by immigration in the capital. He is particularly concerned about an illegal immigrant population which he claims “could be as high as 500,000”, without citing any evidence.

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Goodhart adds that “many parts of the capital would fail my integration ‘bus stop’ test — can you share a joke at a bus stop with a stranger from a different ethnicity about something you have both heard on national media?”. Many people would note that there are few things less London-like than speaking to a stranger at a bus stop, let alone sharing a topical joke.

Importing US political terminology to Britain, Goodhart claims that “London is the capital of blue state Britain – alongside Manchester, Birmingham and the other big cities – and the resentful red state provincials have had enough”. And then comes his conclusion: “And what happens when London’s white British population falls below 20 per cent in 10 years’ time, as it appears on track to do? Is there some minimum number of natives that a capital requires before it ceases to be the capital? Perhaps Nigel Farage’s next policy surprise will be to propose stripping London of its capital status and moving the government to York.”

It’s no wonder staff at the massively loss-making Standard (£19.6m in the year up to last September) are bewildered that editor Anna van Praagh is turning the paper into one which increasingly appears to dislike the city it used to serve. Last month it was back to championing hapless Tory mayoral hopeful Susan Hall, whose entire campaign was about how awful London is. And now one contributor thinks it shouldn’t even be the capital!