BIG IS GOOD

A cabbage is better than garlic, a cow is more valuable than a baby. Yes “Big is Good” is the new theory of history as put forward by Professor David Starkey.

Starkey is one of those fabulous new TV experts that everyone loves earning millions explaining stuff about “the Tudors” “The Wives of Henry VIII” that sort of thing. Never mind thirty years of social history, we’re back to the Great men theory with Starkey’s new series “The Monarchy” starting somewhere soon (BBC, Channel 4 who cares?)

Now I don’t mind academics making a buck by re-treading superficial historical guff , but what I do mind is this being presented as a piece of UK-national cultural artefact. It's not that close-minded English academics shouldnt be allowed to revel in a sort of nationalist-populism, of course they should. Why not? Just don't give this shite intellectual credibility or offer it up as our history.

As his hilarious site (Good Queen Bess ) describes it: “The series is not just another ‘kings and queens’. Instead it is a radical reappraisal of the development of English nationhood, culture and politics, using the monarchy, the central institution of English life, as a focus. In part it looks at the role of our most distant ancestors the Anglo-Saxons and finds them the most original and distinctive in English history.”
So it should be called The English Monarchy and that’s just fine and dandy, but Starkey’s claim is that Scotland has no relevance other than as a near-neighbour to England, citing the Darien Scheme as his main piece of evidence (yawn). This “big is good” approach to history is worrying. On this basis, culturally Canada is fascinating, Japan irrelevant.

Click on Lesley Riddoch’s Tuesday Show here to listen to David getting a roasting.
Unfortunately you’ve got to listen to a load of guff about paedophilia before hand…

Or visit the Professors own site here: Good Queen Bess.