I was laughing sandbags and dancing a jig of delight until I realised the ramifications.

Step 1. We close the News of the World.

Step 2. We wait a few weeks.

Step 3. We re-open as The Sun on Sunday.

Step 4. We go laughing all the way to the bank.

The catch, which few people seem to have caught on to, is that it's cheaper to run a seven days a week newspaper than it is to run a six days a week newspaper and a separate one on Sundays. I'll bet Murdoch has been looking for the perfect excuse to rationalise that bit of his empire for ages, and along it has come - on a plate.

Not even Mel Brooks could have dreamed this one up.