What a stushie ! Question Time on the BBC and brave little Scotland is maligned by the evil English pantomime villain old “Stinky Starkey” Dr. David Starkey Historian to people like us. In measured upper class tones he describes our country as a feeble place, Bobby Burns as deeply boring and; horror of horrors; he cruelly describes the bagpipes as awful; well, “sumdae haud me back” I’ll marmalise him.
Starkey is a right wing populist commentator on almost everything, a “rent a quote” super star and he knows how to target his audience, lumbering inadequates like Mike Russell SNP MSP and minister for shortbread should wear a bulls eye target sewn to their a***s when taking him on; what an embarrassing mismatch, Starkey wins hands down, he can’t miss for several reasons.
Firstly he knows that there is more than a grain of truth in his comments, anyone who doubts his comments on Bobby Burns should be forced to read and re-read “my hearts in the highlands” Shakespeare, Shelley, Yeats etc. would have kenneled the fire with this doggerel while Burns fans claim it as great poetry. If you played bagpipes to prisoners you would end up in the Court of Human Rights for inflicting cruel and inhuman torture. People like Russell stupidly allow themselves to be forced in to a position of defending this junk and calling it our culture, Starkey is cute enough to know that.
Starkey also said once that the Queen “lacked education and had no idea of history” described her as “an uneducated housewife; who has simply been left some wonderful possessions” and said she was;” a bit like Goebbels in her attitude to culture” with the Queen at his Elizabeth I exhibition he recalled that “she seemed more concerned with the late arrival of her gin and wine than the displays” as well as saying "The Scots and the Welsh are typical small nations with a romantic 19th century-style nationalism." He is not all bad then right? He didn’t offer apologies for any of this and they can’t have his tongue cut out and nailed to the door of the Bloody Tower; nor can they stick his head on a pike outside Parliament so, I think the Oaf Russell can “whistle Dixie” for his apology.
Starkey is though; a genuine ugly B*****d of a man; cynical, cruel and reactionary. I believe this to be the result of frustration at having to live his life under the shadow of people like Eric Hobsbawn, A.J.P. Taylor, E.P. Thomson and many more, historians well out of his class people who never dreamed of behaving like him because they never had to and never would anyway. This is the cause of the calculated bad behavior and the endless sneering. But hold on, Mike Russell SNP falls for it and; I’ve just spent an hour writing about him, never again.
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Whereas those Cultural Colossi Messrs Brown and Donohoe unleashed his rationale at the surely cowering Starkey.:
Russell Brown, Labour MP for Dumfries and Galloway, said: "This is a silly remark but one that many people will find offensive.
"Mr Starkey's apparent willingness to write off the entire nation of Scotland as 'feeble' shows that a knowledge of history doesn't make you understand the reality of modern life in different parts of the UK.
"Scots don't spend their days walking around in kilts playing the bagpipes and reciting Tam o'Shanter, but that doesn't make us any less proud of that part of our history and culture."
Brian Donohoe, Labour MP for Central Ayrshire, said: "Some people don't like Burns' poems, and there is no requirement that they should.
"But to describe Burns' vibrantly engaging work as 'boring' suggests that Dr Starkey doesn't know what he's talking about.
"His attitude and flippancy insults Scots and he should apologise. "
PS This Oscar Wild you refer to, is he related to Jack Wild of HR Puffinstuff and Oliver fame?
WV twunt
It took you an hour to write that?
Starkey is one of those gays we all know - loud and abrasive - give him an audience and he will play it 'til the cows come home'.
The 'populace' seen to love it in John Barrowman!
He is an oik of the first order. I am glad to see that you feel the same. I wrote about him too when he spouted his anti-female rubbish:
http://www.pickledpolitics.com/archives/4149
It was Labours Margaret Curran that led the charge against Starkey's remarks -making the nasty threatening remark that he'd better not come to Scotland any time soon.
Why are Labour pandering to nasty nationalism and do you condemn Currans small minded remarks.
Why are Labour behaving like subhuman Gnat trash over this? And however ugly Starkey is he'll never be as much of a dog as Strurgeon.
http://www.scottishlabour.org.uk/labour-mps-attack-outrageous-insult-on-scotland
Dr David Starkey actually comes from a working class background but he obviously has pretentions of a higher class.
You are just the same as him though with your usual rant against Burns. Funny how the man is huge in the rest of the world, even in places like Russia and South America. He is in fact bigger overseas than he is in his own country. I have not read Burns since my schooldays some thirty odd years ago but all I can say on the subject of his work is let us all see you come out with anything better that will be remembered all over the world a couple of centuries from now.
Why your slag against Russell, there is only one problem - he is English. He is only defending Scottish culture as it is his brief. But how typical of you, Scottish culture bad, Welsh culture bad but Irish culture good. You are one of the world class ignorant, confused bigots that blight Scotland. Very much like Starkey in fact!
You were doing quite well there, Councillor, up until you hit the last fence. Hobsbawn and Thompson? You mean those two, superannuated, old Marxists and Stalinist toadies? Do me a favour!
I think you will find if you read the front of this blog that I don’t speak for anyone other than myself but; to be fair, I think that this kind of knee jerk reaction is a party wide thing.
Oscar Wild? He was a scribbler, quite good actually but; no Bobby Burns I’ll grant you; and not even Scottish poor man but that’s hardly his fault.
26/04/09
With your odious and bigoted little rant you have just achieved a herculean task; I, and I suspect many others who follow this blog have just been reminded that there are a lot worse people in the world than Dr. David Starkey.
26/04/09
Being a Historian is a serious business; it requires a certain gravitas, it is a noble profession, he doesn’t deserve to be a member of the profession.
A.J.P. Taylor e.g. could be hilarious and mischievous, it was part of his strength but Starkey is deliberately offensive to get attention.
Taylor was the first TV Historian and was quite brilliant; you may not be old enough to remember him.
26/04/09
I have searched for Margaret Curran’s remarks and can’t find them: direct me.
Anyway if that is what she said then I include her with Mike Russell they are just the kind of “marks” that Starkey was aiming at.
Just in case you were wondering about my remarks I’m not copying Starkey I do deplore what some people describe as Scottish Culture, like Bobby Burns and Bagpipes etc. it’s pathetic.
You've just wiynessed something which you will not find from the SNP I just publicly attacked one of my own Party MSP's.
(Anonymous) 26/04/09
Some people will react to Starkey’s remarks because they are conned by him; others like these two labour politicians as well as the SNP ones will do so because they lack the courage to ignore him.
They are afraid that people will attack them for not attacking Starkey and they “get their retaliation in first “ they are pathetic and weak.
I by contrast am happy to agree with Starkey’s remarks, the cod Scottish culture he refers to s indeed S***e, while admitting of course that he is a deeply ugly bastard, not physically but truly deeply ugly.
Your remark about Ms. Sturgeon is gratuitous, offensive and wrong.
26/04/09
Let me put you straight about Burns, I have read and enjoyed some of his poetry but IMO there are very few poems which are worth praise, he’s a “curate’s egg” anyone who wrote as much as he did was bound to come up with something worthwhile, like a bunch of monkey’s typing the complete works of Shakespeare if you give them enough time. He was also a horrible ratbag of a person.
I have travelled around approx. 10 European countries and I have not seen a single reference to Burns in any of them, not one.
Scottish, Irish, Welsh, English and Outer Mongolian Culture are all liked in parts and disliked in other parts, what is good and bad is subjective except of course when you come to the hidebound parochial Burns nut who is an embarrassment to us all.
I attacked Russell for the same reason that I attacked Labour politicians knee jerk reactions, for being cowardly and pathetic.
(David Duff) 07:58
You’ll be more of a David Irving man I take it.
"You’ll be more of a David Irving man I take it."
Yes, indeed you would, Councillor, and with all your usual shrewd political insight combined with the rigorous intelligence which so delights your regular readers, you would be utterly and completely wrong. Oh well, 'E' for effort!
I think Burns should be admired not so much for his own stuff which is good for the most part but let's not get too carried away.
Where he deserves real credit is for collecting and preserving old Scots folk tunes etc. Liking Burns is a bit like enjoying The Stones -they sound great until you hear the music that inspired them and realise that it's the real deal.
P.S Curran was all over the radio on Friday -be thankful you can't find the quotes the emarrassment would kill you!
(Anonymous) 27/04/09
I think you are getting there; he was as much a plagiarist as any of them. David Starkey and Margaret Curran are a pair; he provokes to get publicity and she responds for the same reason, rather sad really.
Poor David: hubris is dangerous right? If you don't want me to make a fool of you, you should stop leading with your chin.
I don't see it as getting there as you put it. Burns acknowledged his traditional borrowings rather than trying to pass them off as his own and for that we should all be grateful. Burns needs to approached as a starting point rather than year zero.
For me a Burns Night or similar is acknowledging a talented poet and celebrating a long line of folk heritage.
(Anonymous) 01/05/09
I regard Burns as vastly overrated and the way he lionised by some Scots. is embarrassing and; he did not acknowledge all of his borrowings, he was no better than anyone else when it comes to that, he owes Alexander Pope and others which he has never admitted.
The Burns industry is an overblown celebration of mediocrity, I’ve never met anyone who can remember more than 2 or 3 poems right through, and those remembered are always the same 2 or 3. It’s all “sound and fury” about very little now who said that I wonder.
Labour's idea of "culturh" is a screw top smacked over your burberry baseball cap and blood mingling with buckfast on your new shellsuit top. Pure class by the way! I love reading your craven Scotch pieces Kelly. Goes to show that the evolution process may not have applied equally to all hairless apes after all.
(Anonymous) 10:18
Thank you for those kind comments Dr. Starkey.
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