Published by Trinity Mirror in London England, a company for which incidentally my son works (albeit in Liverpool), the Daily Mirror is reputedly Britain's most popular daily tabloid. As he brings home a copy of this paper daily, I suppose I had better be loyal and write about it.

Did you know, or suspect possibly, that this newspaper originally started out as a Womens' newspaper at the end of the l9th Century. Personally I feel it still slants towards it's feminine readers with many features on slimming, make up, fashion etc.,each day.

Founded by a man called Alfred Harmsworth who later became Viscount Northcliffe, the Mirror has, in the main, always been a working class newspaper with articles fighting beaurocracy and feauturing personal stories with a human interest.

This has continued to modern day times, the Mirror's low point occurring during Robert Maxwell's chairmanship when its right wing rival the Sun gained in popularity. We all know of Robert's unfortunate (or fortunate -depending where you're coming from) demise and the Mirror now has the widest circulation in Britain and is edited by Piers Morgan, who currently was involved in a scandal himself regarding share forecasts. Unfortunately another Mirror employee has also been involved in a legal case involving Leeds footballers and alleged racism and fighting.

I have to admit that if it wasn't for the family interest, I personally would probably prefer to buy either the Daily Express or Daily Mail (two similarly styled English newspapers), but much though I would like to appear intellectual and wise, I just can't come to terms with the likes of The Guardian or The Times, possibly because they're too big for me to handle.....I only have short arms and I confess I prefer shorter articles with accompanying photographs (not very cool I know, but at least I'm being honest).

Anyway to those of you who don't know what the paper is about, here are some hopefully relevant facts:

Printed daily, the Mirror emphasises the sensational. It's front page usually contains a large relevant photograph with a small accompanying paragraph giving a brief background to the day's headlines. You will always find however a banner across the top of the front page advertising more salacious gossip which can be found inside.

The second page is usually a follow on from the front page headlines with a small section given to the daily weather and temperatures nationwide. The next page however is always given over to some minor celebrity, usually Liz Burley....oops sorry Hurley and her ankle to hip split dresses or Geri Halliwell who seems to be losing more and more weight lately! !

Annoyingly a large part of the Mirror, several pages in fact, consists of adverts for the likes of Dixons, or PC World, two English electronic stores,and even more irritatingly there is now a whole page of astrology predictions made by a chap called Jonathan Cainer if I'm correct. And while I'm griping, Matthew Wright, who was the Mirror's celebrity columnist for many years has now been replaced by three silly women who call themselves 3am. This for me has to be the worst part of the paper. The page is totally given to idiotic gossip....do you really want to know for example that Hugh Grant was spotted in Harrods buying a new tie? There is even a small spot given to "Wicked Whisper".....Here is a recent one just as an example:

"Which rocker, who regularly writes songs about his wife, isn't quite the husband he appears to be. He had a three year affair with the P.A. of another famous popstar which only ended a year ago".

Do you know who that is? No....neither do I...The reader is left to guess the identity. 3am can therefore write anything they like as they haven't named the celebrity and could merely deny the article related to anyone questioning it. What an utter cop -out! ! It really makes me mad, especially as I can never guess who it's meant to be anyway! ! ! Bring back Matthew I say and send Jessica Callan, Eva Simpson and Polly Graham back to the cats cage they came from.

Well we''ve now reached round or about the middle of the Daily Mirror. Here we always have an interview with the likes of the latest Coronation Street member, although today's story surrounds Anna Nicholl the huge busty woman who married the little old millionaire. Sorry I haven't bothered to read this so can't really comment but I can tell you it was at least 2 pages so it should be enough to cover somebody's fish and chips later in the week. For those of you who aren't British.....chips (or fries) were at one time wrapped up in newspapers in order to keep them warm until you got home.

Happily I'm glad to say at least the Mirror does not have a Page 3 pinup like some other minor British tabloids like the Sun or the Daily Sport, having had the insight to see that such pinups are no longer politically correct (they print Liz and Geri instead).

Well I've got the bad bits out of the way, nor for some positive points. The Mirror is printed clearly. Sorry all you intellectuals but to somebody like me with dreadful eyesight this is so important. I just can't be bothered to squint and struggle with huge paragraphs, not punctuated with any pics to break up the monotony. It is also easy to handle and I'm surprised all newspapers aren't printed this size nowadays.

The weekend Mirror is particularly a good buy these days with a Womens Magazine supplement called M and the T.V. paper called Look. I usually just glance through M, but have looked at it more thoroughly this week for the purpose of this opinion. M contains all the usual womens articles on make-up, latest fashion, cooking etc. In addition there are small sections covering the stars latest fashion gaffes and an interview with a normal everyday couple who give their secrets away....for example Do you close the door when you go to the loo? I don't know about you, but I personally don't really want to know this information, but presumably it's a popular piece as it's in M every week without fail.

The Look is better however with the T.V programmes clearly shown. I've noticed in some other weekend magazines that you have to spend hours sifting through to find the programme you want to see as everything is crammed into one small page. This magazine usually features a minor star interview from one of the British soap operas.

The weekend (Saturday) Mirror also has a middle section based on interior design and housing. I particularly enjoy looking at the Estate Agent-like page where beautiful cottages or castles and the like are shown with their relevant prices. Pippa Greenwood, a British garden expert also writes in the Mirror on a Saturday giving useful tips..

Saturday's paper also contains articles by Victor Lewis-Smith and an article by his adversary, James Whittaker. Victor is sarcastic, sardonic, sometimes funny but usually disgusting, while James is an overbearing pathetic snob who writes of his connections with British royalty and still frequently refers to the late Princess Diana, from whom he gained his fame and success. Victor and James apparently detest each other and often write bitter comments about each other.

Personally I would rather read the articles by Brian Read or Tony Parsons, their writing being far more general and pertinent. Tony Parsons has, incidentally, recently written a best selling novel about his endeavours to bring up his son singlehandedly and Brian Read is a fellow Liverpudlian who will often investigate current affairs - he recently travelled from one end of Britain to another by British Rail to see just how long it took and what problems he encountered on the way, during the recent Rail difficulties in England.

With pages devoted to the day's t.v.programmes with a short critical piece by Tony Purnell regarding the previous evenings programmes and pages on finance, particularly on Wednesdays, with banking, savings and share price articles, the Mirror does try to cover every interest. The finance issues are easy to read and follow being written in laymens' terms and I am given to understand that the sports pages (located at the back of the paper) cannot be beaten, although I confess here to giving these pages a complete miss, as I personally am not the least bit sporty (my rising weight is currently proof of this). These pages are most usually devoted to football, tennis or the likes and there is also a page on horse racing for anyone interested in the occasional flutter.

If you can ignore the political slant towards Labour and the occasional competitiveness with the Sun, the Mirror isn't a bad paper, even bearing in mind my obvious criticisms. It constantly brings matters to the fore which would otherwise be buried and forgotten and has its own Mirror awards for bravery which are televised each year. There are occasional campaigns, a monument to Princess Diana being one of them and it certainly is always up to date with news events, unlike the Sun which personally I find prints the news at least a day or sometimes two or three behind other newspapers.

Certainly not a paper for the intellectuals amongst us, but if all you want is general up to date news bulletins interspersed with human stories, the Mirror is probably the newspaper you will enjoy. It has recently increased its price and now costs 32p per day rising to 40p on a Saturday and 65p on a Sunday. Unfortunately I can't really comment on the Sunday edition as it is not the family's usual Sunday newspaper.

Trinity Mirror are also the publishers of local newspapers, here in Liverpool we have the Liverpool Echo and the Merseymart. Well, I feel I have done my best to try to keep my son in work.......just hope I haven't put anyone off. I wonder what the next wicked whisper will be.........hm...now who can that be?





Recommended: Yes

Describe the newspaper's political views: It is moderate