Kmflett's Blog

Times Obituary of Rod Liddle (1960-2026)

The Times under the ownership of the Murdochs and the Editorship of Tony Gallagher is hardly (if it ever was) the paper or record. That said it is still good on the Royals (Court Circular and beyond), cricket and Obituaries.

The Obituary of Rod Liddle who wrote for the Sunday Times and the S*n- Murdoch journalists often work across both-is above.

I didn’t realise Liddle was still active journalism wise. I received occasional reports of sightings in Saltburn, North Yorks, where he has a property and I used to live, but assumed he was retired. However when doing a piece (on beards obviously) for Times Radio recently I noted that he was listed as one of the presenters. Again Murdoch’s idea presumably was to fuse that station with Talk which he also owns.

The obituary will confound those who think only positive things should be contained in them. It underlines Liddle’s strengths as a journalist- his period as Editor of Radio 4’s Today produced a far better programme that it is today- but does not steer away from (most) of his many downsides.

For eulogies Boris Johnson (on Twitter obviously) has posted this:

Heartsick at the death of Rod Liddle – an outrageously funny and gifted writer with a beautiful conversational style. He had a unique talent for finding the thing that was obviously true but supposedly unsayable and then saying it with such panache as to give the maximum possible offence – and to all the right people. Spectator readers absolutely loved him.

Michael Gove, The Spectator’s editor, said: “Rod Liddle was a journalist of genius. In the tradition of Swift, Cobbett and Orwell, he was a satirist who found society’s most sensitive spots and made merciless fun of our follies.

Peter Oborne’s opposing view

Rod Liddle played the politics of hatred – we should be honest about his legacy | Middle East Eye

When I knew Liddle on Teesside in the second half of the 1970s, he was then a socialist punk, I recall him as personable and amiable. Looking at the many comments after his death was reported from those who knew him more recently, it seems that on occasion he retained those elements of his character. Clearly also on many occasions he did not…