The day I got Rod Liddle sacked

On the few occasions when something I have written has directly affected a person, I have usually regretted it. During the row about the hunting ban, I got furious with Rod Liddle, then the editor of the Today programme, because he wrote an article attacking people who hunt. I composed a thunderous leader in the Daily Telegraph about his shocking lack of impartiality and called for his sacking. Amazingly, the BBC obliged. I was dismayed, because Rod (though indeed preposterous on that particular subject) was one of the few subversive spirits ever to rise to an important editorial position in the corporation. My guilt was only partially assuaged by his finding his metier as a columnist on this paper instead.

This Monday, I attacked the current editor of Today, Jamie Angus, for running a hagiographical interview about Castro with Richard Gott, without mentioning that Gott had been forced to resign from the Guardian in the 1990s after he admitted being paid by the KGB.