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Events on Sunday 2 August 2026 2
1960 – 2026Rod Liddle (1960–2026)Rod Liddle (born 1 April 1960, Sidcup, Kent – 2 August 2026, Middlesbrough) was an English journalist, broadcaster and author who served as editor of BBC Radio 4s Today programme (1998-2002) and spent 24 years as associate editor and columnist at The Spectator. He also wrote weekly columns for The Sunday Times and The Sun and presented a Saturday morning show on Times Radio. A provocateur who delighted and infuriated in equal measure, he was one of the most widely read opinion writers in British journalism -- a sharp, funny, frequently inflammatory voice from the political tradition he described as old Labour: socially conservative, economically interventionist, instinctively suspicious of metropolitan liberalism. He died on 2 August 2026 at the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, aged 66, following a short illness.
2026Death -- 2 August 2026, aged 66Rod Liddle dies on 2 August 2026 at the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, following a short illness. He is 66. His children Wilder, Tyler and Emmy say in a statement: "We are all very saddened and shocked at the sudden passing of our wonderful father. He raised us much as you might imagine, to be inquisitive, brave and always humorous. Even in hospital in the last few weeks, he consistently held the room and never let the awful situation show." Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News UK, calls him "an inimitable journalistic force." John Humphrys, who presented Today during Liddles editorship, calls him one of the greatest columnists he was ever privileged to read.