Despite assembling a collection of worthies who would guarantee the Belfast Telegraph's independence if it were taken over by Independent News & Media, Tony O'Reilly has failed to impress not just Unionist MPs at Westminster but some advertisers in the North.

The Unionist MPs, needless to say, base their opposition to the potential Independent Group acquisition of the Belfast Telegraph purely on competition grounds, and their opposition of course has nothing to do with politics or the Independent Group's domicile in the Republic.

The question for Trinity Mirror - forced by trade and industry secretary, Stephen Byers, to sell the Belfast Telegraph and its associated titles - is whether it can take the risk of an Independent Group takeover being referred to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission for investigation. The other potential bidders - Guardian, Gannett, RIM and the Apax-backed MBO by Belfast Telegraph chief executive Derek Carvill - present no competition problems.

But hang on a second. The Independent Group doesn't have any operations in the North apart from the northern edition of the Sunday World which admittedly competes directly with the Belfast Telegraph's Sunday Life. So where are the competition complications?

Many in the advertising industry - especially in broadcasting - tend to look on the island of Ireland as a single market. After all, Ulster Television does compete aggressively against RTE and TV3 for spending by advertisers in the Republic. But in print media, there really is no all-Ireland advertising market with the Independent Group's titles in the Republic hardly competing for advertising with any of the Northern Ireland titles.

Still, the opposition of Unionist MPs and the Northern Ireland advertising industry to the Independent Group's involvement - as espoused by McCann Erickson chief executive David Lyle in the Financial Times this week - is a complicating factor that Trinity Mirror might prefer to do without. In any case, the eventual winner of the process will automatically have the bid referred to the Office of Fair Trade.

Definitive bids have to be lodged for the Belfast Telegraph by next Monday. Expect more political manoeuvring as the £300 million-plus bidding battle moves towards a conclusion.