Well, *I* like Rod Liddle

I remember that article he wrote for the Speccie

"Harriet Harman is either thick or criminally disingenuous".

Good stuff, so of course it's "got him into rather a lot of hot water."

Lovely kick-off, the sort of irksome eye-catcher I aspire to for my own blatherings:

"So - Harriet Harman, then. Would you? I mean after a few beers obviously, not while you were sober."

Well done Taki's tottie, Spectator assistant editor Mary Wakefield, finding the piece "very funny."

Says RL,

"It was supposed to be a parody of guttural, base sexism ... I got it wrong on a number of counts.

Clearly it gave offence to too many women and clearly it was ill-judged."

No, it wasn't.

What might have been ill-judged is my glimpsing that photo up there.

He's the first person I turn to in the Spectator - OK, if I happen to flip to Ms Lightwater's page, it's impossible not to read her whole diary - and I just like that reassuring tousle-haired doodle of him.

The reality in the photo isn't quite what I'm after.