Ian Levack Aitken was born on 19 September 1927 and died on 21 February 2018. He was a British journalist and political commentator.
Aitken was educated at the King Alfred School, Hampstead, Lincoln College, Oxford, and the LSE.
Aitken served in the Fleet Air Arm from 1945 to 1948.
He started journalism in 1953 as the industrial correspondent of the Tribune newspaper, after a spell as a HM inspector of factories and a trade union official.
During the year (1954) he joined the Daily Express and filled a number of positions at the paper before joining The Guardian in 1964.
Ian was The Guardian’s political editor, rom 1975 to 1990
He wrote occasional columns for that paper and for Tribune. Politically he was ‘traditional’ left-of-centre (sometimes called ‘classic labour’), being against the Iraq War, and having accused ‘New Labour’ of having ‘hijacked’ the Labour Party.
His father, George, fought with the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War.
He was also a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain; however, Ian resigned following the CPGB’s support for the Hitler-Stalin Pact.
He died at 90 years old.