It is one thing to have no respect for developers, politicians, bankers, business people and any amount of other sub sets you care to mention, but to blatantly have no respect for your journalist colleagues who are fighting for their jobs? What a stunt the Mail on Sunday pulled, wrapping the paper in a facsimile of the Sunday Tribune.

We bought the 'Trib' yesterday, delighted to see it on the shelves and thinking that somehow the journalists had managed to get it out, as happened in the dying days of the Irish Press. We bought it as we did every Sunday for its excellent content, but particularly this week in solidarity with those struggling to keep a good thing going. And then we found the Mail inside, ha ha ha.

What genius came up with this plan, and did he really think that as a result of it we would all start reading the Mail? The Mail does a few things well – I'm told its great for mopping up spills on the kitchen floor – but they are dreaming if they think they will mop up Sunday Tribune readers.

Apparently the decision was made last Friday, Editor Sebastian Hamilton pushing hard for his wonderful marketing idea and persuading the more reluctant MD, Paul Henderson to go along with him. The plan was kept quiet till Sunday, and sprung on the unsuspecting readers, who probably choked on their cornflakes when they opened the cover.

Tonight the National Consumer Agency is considering an action against the Mail under the Consumer Protection act and rightly so, considering the active hope to find a buyer and sell the Tribune as a going concern.