Conservative in his own words, English historian and radio/TV host David Robert Starkey CBE (born 3 January 1945) has been a fixture on British airwaves for decades.
He received a scholarship to attend Cambridge University and went there after attending Kendal Grammar School as the only child of Quaker parents. There, he developed an expertise in Tudor history and completed a thesis on the court of King Henry VIII.
He taught history at Cambridge University before relocating to London to teach at the London School of Economics until 1998. A number of novels about the Tudor era have been penned by him.
A television debut for Starkey occurred in 1977. His repeated appearances on Question Time have been met with both criticism and admiration, and his sharp tongue has earned him the nickname “rudest man in Britain” during his time as a regular contributor to the BBC Radio 4 debate show The Moral Maze.
Starkey has hosted a number of historically-focused films. Having secured a £2 million contract with Channel 4 for 25 hours of programming in 2002, he also appeared as a contributor on the network’s Jamie’s Dream School in 2011.
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David Starkey Controversy
David Starkey, a historian, has admitted that he is being probed by police following a contentious interview he conducted with Brexit supporter Darren Grimes.
Slavery not being genocide because there are “so many damn blacks” still alive drew severe condemnation to Dr. Starkey.
After posting the interview on his YouTube channel Reasoned UK, Mr. Grimes drew the attention of the Metropolitan Police due to his comments.
Dr. Starkey issued a statement on Tuesday defending Mr. Grimes, calling the investigation’s focus on him “unfortunate and terribly unfair.”
The 75-year-old claimed, “Mr. Grimes is a young, ambitious journalist, and his role in the matter is, at most, secondary.”
I’ve already expressed my deepest regret for the tone of my previous statements, and I do so again now. I have already paid a high price for my foolishness.
In spite of this, “there was nothing in the circumstances of the broadcast which made it likely to stir up racial animosity.”
Focusing on Mr. Grimes, Dr. Starkey said, “raised fundamental problems” about journalistic freedom and public discourse.
He elaborated, saying, “My primary fear was that my blundering use of language and the penalties it has entailed will further limit public debate and freedom of expression.”
Dr. Starkey stated that the Metropolitan Police Department (Met) had tried to email him on the same day it informed Mr. Grimes about the investigation, but that the message had instead been forwarded to the Bow Group, a conservative think tank where he serves as vice president.
So, Dr. Starkey claimed the email was forwarded to him on Tuesday morning.
Because of the delay and the ensuing uncertainty, the police are now focusing solely on Mr. Grimes. “This is extremely terrible and unfair,” he continued.
Dr. Starkey said he would help the authorities out, but that he would “fight me forcefully against any charge of criminal activity.”
Dr. Starkey stated, in an online publication of his initial conversation with Mr. Grimes, “Slavery was not genocide, or there would not be so many darn blacks in Africa or in Britain.”
There’s no point in arguing against globalization or Western civilization, and a surprising number of them managed to survive. Just as we are all its offspring, so are they.
To put it plainly, the British Empire was the first significant step in the process of globalization taught by its descendants.
“It is still with us, and it is perhaps the most significant moment in human history.”
Mr. Grimes’s investigation was made public on Saturday after Scotland Yard released the following statement: “On July 4, the Metropolitan Police Service was provided an allegation from Durham Police of a public order crime relating to a social media video posted on June 30.”
Officers looked into it, and on July 29 they turned over a file to the Crown Prosecuting Service to get some preliminary investigative advice.
On September 25, police obtained preliminary investigation guidance and launched a probe.
It’s being kept under consideration. There have been no reported arrests at this time.
Mr. Grimes told The Daily Telegraph that the police probe might have “severe ramifications for freedom of expression.”
Meanwhile, Ian Murray, executive director of the Society of Editors, expressed his group’s “grave worry” about the threat that such a probe poses to free speech and the chilling impact it could have on the media’s capacity to interview controversial figures.
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Personal Life
Starkey was married to James Brown, a book publisher and book designer, for many years until Brown’s death in 2015.
The couple maintained not one, but three residences: one in Highbury, one in Kent with a manor, and one in Chestertown, Maryland, United States.
Prior to moving to Islington, Starkey resided at John Spencer Square in Canonbury.
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