Observer's ex editor looks at the paper's fraught relationship with its big brother

The marriage of two like-minded papers seemed to be a union made in heaven, assuring a continued existence of the title.

writes Ex-editor of the Observer Jonathan Fenby in the Independent this morning.

He reveals the difficulty of the paper's relationship with the Guardian

causes for ill feeling between the daily and Sunday multiplied as the weeks and months went by. To meet the targets which the management of Guardian Group had presented to the trust, to justify the purchase, there were sharp editorial cuts, cushioned by Lonrho's generous redundancy terms.

and continues to spill the beans

When they were moved to the Farringdon Road building of the paper's new sibling to save money, Observer journalists found themselves shoe-horned into half the promised space, with some departments put into separate rooms down the street. As for the editor, goodbye to my predecessor's private shower room at the Battersea palace. The Guardian foreign desk told joint stringers that their first loyalty was to the daily.