Julian Haviland

 ( 1930 Births ) 

In 1961, Haviland joined Independent Television News as a reporter and occasional newscaster. He became ITN's political correspondent in 1965, and in 1975 its political editor. He reported on the devaluation crisis facing Harold Wilson, the election of Edward Heath and the three-day week, and the subsequent return of Wilson to power. He was the first person to interview Margaret Thatcher on her victory in the Conservative Party leadership contest on 11 February 1975.

He interviewed James Callaghan when he became prime minister a year later. Haviland contrasted his attitude to political reporting with that of ITN's then news editor, Don Horobin, thus: "(for him) it was the Daily Mail that set ITN's agenda. My view was that at ITN we must be at least as responsible and accurate as the BBC, without being so damned boring". He was also known on-screen for wearing a plain jersey below the jacket rather than the more formal attire of a waistcoat.

Haviland was a member of the 1975 Houghton Committee, and co-wrote the minority report which persuaded Parliament not to introduce the state funding of political parties, as had been advocated by some members and suggested by others inside and outside Westminster.

In 1981, Haviland joined The Times as political editor, reporting on the early problems facing Thatcher's first government. He retired from daily print journalism in 1986, the year of the Wapping dispute between the newspaper's proprietor and the print unions. He moved to Tomintianda, on the banks of Loch Tummel in Strathtummel in the Scottish Highlands, where he wrote two books and occasionally contributed to national political debate. He attended a political reunion of ITN's past and present political editors in 2011, to bid farewell to a colleague of many years' standing, and the following year, the funeral of his former ITN colleague, David Walter.