David Starkey wants to cancel those who criticise him
Those who complain of being cancelled and of ‘cancel culture’ often seem to find many media platforms for their complaints and are often engaged in trying to cancel critics.
At one level it is a confected distraction from very serious issues such as the on-going pandemic.
That doesn’t mean it doesn’t also have a serious purpose however.
October is Black History Month and right-wing critics not least David Starkey, now essentially a controversialist, have been active in denying that there is such a thing in the UK. The purpose is to remove ethnic minorities from any legitimacy in respect of Britain’s past with the aim of also doing so in the present and future.
Unsurprisingly Starkey seems to be becoming a regular on the right-wing outlet GBNews. He recently opined that Black British History started no earlier than 1960 while providing a very partial reading of the life of Mary Seacole and launching yet another unfounded attack on Miranda Kaufman’s work on Black Tudors.
On Thursday he was to be found talking to Nigel Farage on GBNews.It was part of Farage’s Talking Pints show and was in fact recorded at the Samuel Peto a Wetherspoons in Folkestone in front of an almost entirely male audience who had been given a free pint to set the mood
Following racist remarks in July2020 Starkey had ‘unreservedly’ apologised, but now says there was no point in doing so, as he was cancelled anyway. He went on to point out that this had had no practical impact on him (so why mention it?) and that his racist words had simply been a mistake or a slip of the tongue.
Perhaps but Starkey clearly is still fully behind the sentiments, that Black British History has no legitimacy.
On this he is not only deliberately offensive but wrong.
The irony is of course that while he wont be cancelled many of those who have done serious research on the long history of ethnic minorities in Britain struggle to find a voice.
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