Ian Aitken (journalist)

Ian Aitken (born 1927) is a British journalist and political commentator. He was educated at the King Alfred School, Hampstead, Lincoln College, Oxford, and the LSE. He served in the Fleet Air Arm from 1945 to 1948.[1]

Aitken entered journalism in 1953 as the industrial correspondent of the Tribune newspaper, after a spells as a HM inspector of factories and a trade union official. The following year (1954) he joined the Daily Express and filled a number of positions at the paper before joining The Guardian in 1964.[1] From 1975 to 1990 he was The Guardian's political editor.

He now writes occasional columns for that paper and for Tribune. Politically he is 'traditional' left-of-centre (sometimes called 'classic labour'), being against the Iraq War, and having accused 'New Labour' of having 'hijacked' the Labour Party.

Ian Aitken's father, George, fought with the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War.[2] George Aitken was also a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain; however, he resigned following the CPGB's support for the Hitler-Stalin Pact.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 Dennis Griffiths (ed.) The Encyclopedia of the British Press 1422–1992, London and Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1992, p.62
  2. 1 2 "Neither my father – who had been badly wounded in the Great War and was not long back from fighting on the losing side in the Spanish Civil War – nor my mother were under any illusions about what lay ahead." Ian Aitken, Equal and opposite wartime shame for left and right in World War II ". Tribune Magazine, September 6th, 2009. Retrieved October 14th 2013.
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