If the first rule of column writing is to be read and the second and third to be interesting and provocative, the journalist Rod Liddle, who has died aged 66 after a short illness, certainly met the bill. His columns in the Sunday Times, the Spectator and the Sun, and his Saturday morning shows for Times Radio, gave his fans, mainly on the political right, all they needed to fulfil their prejudices, laced with a satirical edge and verve.
He could fill the 2,500-seater London Palladium, as he once did for his conversational show.
