Hmm…if I was Rod Liddle, I wouldn’t like Google News’s approach. Type in his name, and an inflammatory quote comes up in a nice blue box for everybody to violently agree or disagree with. See it here.
Liddle was on 5 Live on Kate Silverton’s show this morning (listen here), answering questions about his highly controversial postings about race on the Millwall FC bulletin board. Some of his denials were convincing, in particular when he said that many of these postings were quoted from out of context.
Whatever you think of Liddle’s sentiments and above all his wind-up approach (of which, being the easy going sort, I am no fan), it’s clear from his performance that a Liddle-led Independent would rip up the newspaper’s rule book. He may say he would not vote Conservative, but his distaste for metropolitan elites comes over loud and clear.
Not since the Express went Labour in the 1990s has there been the prospect of such a dramatic shift in a daily title’s tone and, one suspects, its politics.
