It has been confirmed this afternoon that Russian billionnaire Alexander Lebedev has bought The Independent and Independent on Sunday to add to the Evening Standard, which he purchased last year.
It was rumoured several weeks ago and I am hearing the suggestion as loudly this afternoon as then from Fleet Street sources, that the new owner wants to install Greg Dyke as editor of the paper, which would raise potentially interesting questions over the paper's editorial line.
Dyke did of course publicly join the Lib Dems in the afternath of the Iraq war, having been a Labour GLC candidate in the 1970s and donor to Labour in the 1990s, before he joined the BBC as director-general.
However, his anti-Conservative feeling should not be under-estimated: he lives in Vince Cable's constituency of Twickenham in south west London and told me before he joined the Lib Dems that he had been voting for them for years as he was voting tactically against the Conservatives in a seat where Labour had no chance of winning...
> Earlier in the month Tim wondered whether The Indepenski would give the Tories a fairer deal
