Is the Standard getting chicken?

The times are a-twitchy at the London Evening Standard, and who can blame it, just days away from the formal transfer of the reins of power to ex-KGB man Alexander Lebedev. But does it perhaps, in these last days as part of the Daily Mail empire, know something we do not? How else to explain the offer to Standard staff this week of emergency medication designed to protect them in the event of a bird flu epidemic? Oh that, says a spokeswoman for Daily Mail and General Trust. Obviously DMGT has been offering pandemic flu drugs to all staff, and their families, for yonks. The reason for the last-minute offer to departing troops, however, remains unclear. As it happens, it's been a while since the Standard last warned us of avian Armageddon, though in August its sister paper was predicting 750,000 British deaths in a coming pandemic. Never let it be said they don't believe this stuff.