Is Dr David Starkey right?

[anotheoldgit]

When he says,

/// Britain is a white 'mono-culture' and that children should focus on studying the history of their 'own culture'.///

Before some class him as a racist, please read the reports on what he said, from both ends of the political spectrum.

http://www.guardian.c...-monocultural-britain

http://www.dailymail....-British-history.html

http://www.telegraph....culture-comments.html

[emmie]

Riddler, what has being gay got to do with this or indeed anything.
His attitude, what would that be i wonder.

[emmie]

jno, definitely wrong thread.

[ichkeria]

Judging by the virulent anti-religious spleen vented on so many threads here (and I am not religious myself) I am surprised so many people seem bothered about Christianity being superseded by Islam as the main religion.
It's your religion: use it or lose it :-)

[Riddlediddler]

Em we can pussyfoot all day around the issues or we can stand united and admit there is a serious problem you, me and the country needs to address!
Regarding davids sexuality i am oc course meaning his lack of racial tolerance and his abundance of obviously hidden intolerance but i'm sure i didn't need to explain this to anyone after al we all have eyes, ears brains and hearts.

[emmie]

Ickeria, care for neither, and neither do i care for the zealots i have listened to, the preachers of hate, nor do i like the fact of what the capital is like now, some parts are not recognisably part of England. Some people don't like this much change, and having it foisted on them come what may, and it's not about the colour of the persons skin, but the different cultures that are supposed to embrace one another, but most do not.

[DTCwordfan]

As, by definition, any immigrant group has done in the (long) past and will continue to do in the future. They are much, much younger than host population and hence the birth rate to death rate tens to be skewed.

There is, of course, the question of assimilation. An interesting one in Texas is that by the 3rd generation of "Spanish" immigration, nearly 80% have English as their first language (stats from the Houston Chronicle in 2008).

[DTCwordfan]

tends not tens - though that may be an appropriate expression as to the birth rate!

[ichkeria]

"Ickeria, care for neither, and neither do i care for the zealots i have listened to, the preachers of hate, nor do i like the fact of what the capital is like now, some parts are not recognisably part of England. Some people don't like this much change, and having it foisted on them come what may, and it's not about the colour of the persons skin, but the different cultures that are supposed to embrace one another, but most do not. "

(Adopts Robert Robinson voice) Ah, but it was ever thus! Was there ever a time the country was not "invaded" by "foreigners"? The Jews fleeing the Russian pogroms is an example that springs to mind.
Personally, I don't hold with the idea of cultures "embracing" each other exactly, but I don't think they clash disastrously either. You need more than mere cultural differences. The part of the UK with the most conflict over the past half-century has been the comparatively immigrant-free, 99% Christian, mainly white N. Ireland.
As to the question at hand, I doubt if Dr Starkey is a racist. I find some of his views tiresome but I'd need to study them in much greater detail before pronouncing on what I really thought of them.

[sp1814]

Dr Starkey is grammatically wrong. The correct opposite to multi-cultural is uni-cultural, not mono-cultural (which if anything, would be the opposite of 'stereo-cultural').

Silly Starkey.

Back to his point - not sure if Britain actually IS uni-cultural. If it were, why does the EDL exist? All for British history being taught in school, but I'm not sure how you'd be able to teach history without including references to other nations (unless you gloss over the Empire and all that colonial stuff).

Silly Starkey.

By the way Riddle - i get your point, but it doesn't necessarily follow...

[rojash]

" (which if anything, would be the opposite of 'stereo-cultural'). "

Errm, I don't think so.

Stereo comes from the Greek "stereos" meaning "solid" as in "stereophonic" - sounding full or whole, and "stereotype", a solid impression.

[Teddy_boy]

David starkey is a white racist homosexual bigot who cant see past the end of his own nose.

[emmie]

TB, you sound just like those hate preachers, perhaps it takes one to know one.

[Kromovaracun]

I think it's probably worth mentioning that Starkey isn't taken all that seriously among historians. I'm sure his works on Tudor constitutional/royal history are probably studied in their fields (which isn't one I tend to brush with much so that's a guess), but he really isn't seen as some kind of great titan of historical analysis among his peers like he's often made out to be. Unlike, say, Richard Evans (who probably is one of the few left who is a bit closer to that), you scarcely hear of him outside of his speciality field and I'm not even sure how big a name he is in that.

Just thought it might have some interesting reflection.

Personally, I'm all for the study of history informing how we view the present - but it does need some intelligent application. I fail to see why a specialist in Tudor constitutional history is so often deferred to by the media as some kind of weighty paragon of contemporary analysis.

[jno]

at a guess, Kromovaracun, I'd say (a) because Tudor is the only history anyone knows anyway and (b) because he's a celebrity, having made his name as the Anne Robinson of radio on Moral Maze.

[Kromovaracun]

"The Anne Robinson of Radio".

Well, thank you, jno, for making me splurt tea all over my computer.

I might steal that!

[VHG]

It was anounced today that 67% of all children in Secondary Schools in London are from Ethnic Minorities, so what should they study?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-15738876

[VHG]

Teddy boy, use of bigot:

"The predominant usage in modern English refers to persons hostile to those of differing sex, race, ethnicity, religion or spirituality, nationality, language"

So throwing "homosexual" into your tirade makes you as much of a bigot as him (if he is one)

[VHG]

>>(if he is one)

Not clear, I mean if he is a bigot, not if he is homosexual, which is already well known.,

[anotheoldgit]

Well having read all of the comments, it seems by some Dr David Starkey is (and I quote) “a reactionary rent-a-gob”, “a stuffy thieving delusional historian”, “a white racist homosexual bigot”.

Very strong remarks made by those accusing David Stakey, of being a rent-a-gob and racist homosexual bigot., seem to me that these Abers should not throw stones, whilst in a glass house.

jake-the-peg, even went as far to say “I don't have to read any further than the title”.

Now there is a person who is not bothering to read what someone has said, but then goes on to makes insulting comments on that person, without first being aware of what he has said...

Surely no matter what one thinks of a person, if one wants to join in the debate one should first know what the subject matter is all about?

[anotheoldgit]

Riddlediddler

/// I honestly expected much more from him as an openly gay man and wonder did his quaker roots have anything to do with his current "Attitude" ///

So one has to be a openly homosexual to talk sense, but this time it seems David Starkey’s Quaker roots has somehow let the side down.

That’s amazing.