Please note
This is an independent explainer of David Starkey's public argument. It is not his official website and is not affiliated with or endorsed by him. For his own work, see his site davidstarkey.com and his channel, David Starkey Talks.
Who is David Starkey?
David Robert Starkey was born on 3 January 1945 in Kendal, the only child of Quaker parents. He read history at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, and wrote his doctorate on the household of Henry VIII under the great Tudor historian Sir Geoffrey Elton. He taught history, including constitutional history, at the London School of Economics until 1998.
From there he became one of Britain's best-known television historians, with documentaries on Henry VIII, the six wives, Elizabeth I and the monarchy, and a reputation for plain speaking that earned him the label "the rudest man in Britain" on Radio 4's The Moral Maze. He was appointed CBE in 2007. Since 2020 he has worked mainly through his YouTube channel, David Starkey Talks.
What David Starkey argues about Britain
In recent years Starkey has become known less for the Tudors than for a single argument about the present. He holds that Britain's decline is a constitutional failure, not a run of bad leaders, and that Tony Blair's governments broke a settlement that reached back centuries by moving power from elected politics to law, courts and unelected bodies. His remedy is a Great Repeal of those reforms, followed by a restoration of the older tradition. He also argues the Conservatives forgot that they were once the party of the constitution, and focused too narrowly on the economy.
That argument, set out in full and tested against the evidence, is what this site calls the Starkey Thesis. The clearest starting points are the overview and the argument in full.
David Starkey in his own words
He makes the case himself far better than any summary can. The primary sources page collects his lectures and interviews, grouped by where each sits in the argument, from foundational statements to long-form interviews. If you would rather hear it than read about it, start there.
Controversy
Starkey is a divisive figure, and a fair page has to say so plainly. In June 2020, in a podcast interview, he made remarks about slavery that were widely condemned as racist. He apologised, and lost a number of honorary positions, including an honorary fellowship at Cambridge. He has since spoken at conservative events, including the 2023 National Conservatism conference, where some of his remarks on national identity were criticised as divisive.
This site engages his constitutional argument on its merits, which is a different thing from endorsing everything he has said. The question of how far the argument can be separated from the man is taken on directly, and fairly, on the case against.
