Last weekend Britain lost one of the great journalists and commentators of our time. It was with great shock and sadness that news broke on Monday of Rod Liddle's death at the relatively premature age of 66, following an unspecified short illness.
Liddle was often tarred with various names, usually ending in 'ist' or 'phobe', and proudly lived up to the label of the 'most offensive columnist of his generation'. However, he was not always a provocative voice on the right - in fact quite the opposite.
Roderick Edwin Liddle was born in the Kent town of Sidcup on 1 April, 1960, with April Fools' Day becoming an apt date for such a witty man. Aged just eight, his family relocated hundreds of miles to the north and settled in Middlesbrough, where Liddle would attend a local comprehensive. He progressed into further education and soon became embroiled in hard left politics, exacerbated by his attendance of the London School of Economics, where he ironically studied one of the 'useless fucking degrees' he would later go on to rail against - social psychology.
He was a self-professed Trotskyite in his teenage years, having joined the Socialist Workers' Party. He later joined the Labour party and was on the payroll in the mid 1980s, primarily as a speechwriter. As his career in journalism took off, he took a backseat from party politics, but remained a Labour member until his suspension in 2016. He was suspended and later expelled after he used his Spectator column to attack what he perceived as a prevalence of anti-Semitism in some elements of the Labour party. Because he had singled out Muslim activists in the article, he found himself outrageously accused of 'racism'.
The EU referendum of the same year further alienated him from the left and he went on to passionately campaign for the Leave mandate to be enacted. He joined the Social Democratic Party in 2019 and stood for them in the 2024 general election. He found the SDP's left-oriented economics, combined with socially conservative values, the perfect fit. He finished fourth in his local constituency of Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, 0.2 per cent shy of saving the party's deposit.
An uncompromising and witty journalist who was not afraid to tackle sensitive subjects, he was a strong critic of the establishment and a staunch defender of the Leave mandate. A teenage socialist who developed into a complex political animal with a libertarian streak and conservative values, dismayed by Labour's abandonment of the working classes. He never forgot his roots and passed away in a Middlesbrough hospital on Sunday.
Karl has lovingly compiled a video compilation of some of Rod's media appearances and comedy skits. Watch below or on YouTube (32 minute watch)
Rod Liddle will be fondly remembered and sorely missed.
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