David Aaronovitch

Born in 1954, Aaronovitch was the son of a rather more grounded leading member of the Communist Party, the father being Sam Aaronovitch (see separate entry). David Aaronovitch was also a member though rather more briefly.

After being thrown out of Oxford in 1974 for failing exams, Aaronovitch studied history at Manchester University, graduating in 1978.

While at Manchester University, in 1975, he was part of a University Challenge team that answered every question with "Che Guevara", "Marx", "Trotsky" or "Lenin". It was a protest about the programme's bias towards Oxbridge in that Oxford and Cambridge universities can enter each of their colleges in the contest as a separate team, even though the individual colleges are not universities in themselves.

Aaronovitch adopted an extreme “Euro-Communist position” during his later years of membership of the Communist Party and was highly confrontational in his activities within the Party.

He became involved in the Broad Left within the National Union of Student and was elected its President for the period 1980-82.

He was a television researcher for a while but Aaronovitch, who supported the invasion of Iraq, is a now a writer and journalist for right-wing newspapers and has a reputation for controversy.  Opposite: Aaronovitch today