Robert Fisk will be deeply missed

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I was really saddened to read about the death of Robert Fisk, your foreign correspondent extraordinaire, who has long been my journalistic hero. Had read his columns religiously for several decades, and he will be greatly missed by readers as well as colleagues in the media. 

Fisk had a way with words that leaves him peerless in my humble opinion: he could paint a word-picture of the warzone he was reporting from that left you feeling that you were there with him witnessing everything he saw. Indeed, his words from places like Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria were worth a thousand pictures. His geopolitical and historical knowledge always enabled him to link facts from past conflicts to current disputes, and his eye for detail was second to none; often such things as identification numbers on ordnance bomb shells were included in his columns.

There was a human side that always inspired me to come back for more; for example, when he wrote about his father’s service in the Great War, and growing up in Kent train-spotting — exactly what I did as a boy in the same post-World War II era in Cornwall. He often mentioned other people around him, like his driver in Beirut who referred to him as Mister Robert, but of course, his single-mindedness in telling the truth was what really set him apart. I’m sure he would have believed that old Texas expression that “the middle of the road is for yellow lines and dead armadillos”, as he was always intent on taking sides where it mattered to get the truth out to his readers. There was no middle of the road for Mister Robert.

Bernie Smith

Canada

Robert Fisk and I both worked for The Times in the 1970s. We were similar ages but the similarities ended there. I had a desk job in Printing House Square, working for the then features editor, Charles Douglas-Home. Bob was in Belfast at the height of the Troubles, based in the much-bombed Europa Hotel.

To me he had an air of derring-do about him. He would fly over for editorial meetings but would never sit to discuss anything, instead stand jiggling from foot to foot, eager to be off. Always in a hurry.

I left The Times; life moved on. I didn't come across him again until I started to read The Independent, decades later. What a pleasure that was. I always intended writing a letter of appreciation to him. Today I wish I had.

Cynthia Lorne

Barnet

Having been with The Independent since day one it is hardly surprising that we have lost many great journalists and other sundry contributors. 

Over the next week or so I shall be thinking of Robert Fisk when I park up in his boyhood street of Bower Mount Road, Maidstone, waiting to drive my son home from school which is literally next door. In these covid days he has to put up with eccentric older parents driving him rather than risking the bus!

Best wishes to all Robert’s family and friends during this sad time.  

Robert Boston

Kent  

I was so sad to read about the death of Robert Fisk. His writing always reflected intelligence, professionalism and a deep knowledge of his subject. Never afraid to speak truth to power, he had a voice much-needed in these difficult times and one which will be sorely missed.

Sue Breadner

Isle of Man

I was deeply saddened to read of the death of Robert Fisk. His reporting of events in the Middle East was accurate and unbiased. He was not afraid of criticising Israel or the Arab nations in equal measure when their behaviour was contrary to humanity and international law. In fact that sums him up in a few words – fair, unafraid and unbiased. I and many thousands who read his columns will miss him deeply. Although I never had the privilege of hearing him speak, I will miss him like a friend.

Patrick Cleary

Stonehouse, Gloucestershire

Silly remarks

The claim by the Chairman of the 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady, that the announcement of a new lockdown is “a form of evil” is absurd.

That the parliament should debate and vote on the strategy of the government is self-evident.

Backed by the usual cabal, it beggars belief he describes the (belated) efforts of the government in the midst of a global pandemic as “totalitarian and evil”.

Richard Oxenburgh

Manchester

Freedom of speech

Could there be a sillier manifestation of the flawed Hate Crime Bill than the proposed criminalisation of domestic dinner table chat?

We all test ideas and hypothetical positions in a spirit of safe dialectic exploration with friends and family who know our true souls.

To legislate for there to be no difference between private discourse and public statement is chillingly close to The Thought Police.

Neil Barber

Edinburgh Secular Society