THE London Independent seems to be in no doubt about who controls its parent, Independent Newspapers and, particularly, who really owns the Independent Newspaper's 44 per cent of the Indie. The day before the United Newspapers/MAI merger was announced, the Indie's comment column was speculating on whether the Indo might be involved in a bid for the United titles.

"Don't think that because of the

Independent's connections - 43 per cent owned by Mirror and 43 per cent by Tony O'Reilly - it has an inside track," cautioned the column. Funny, the Margin had this strange idea that Independent Newspapers actually owned the 44 per cent of the Indie, not Tony himself.