On 21 November, the KCL Conservative Association (KCLCA) announced their annual Christmas Dinner with their guest speaker David Starkey CBE, described as “a memorable evening you won’t want to miss out on.”
Editor’s note: This article contains language that some readers may find offensive.
Starkey, who the KCLCA describe as a ‘renowned historian’, lost much academic credibility in 2020 after saying “slavery wasn’t a genocide otherwise there wouldn’t be so many damn blacks in Africa and Britain” on a podcast with Darren Grimes.
This resulted in a police investigation, which was ultimately dropped, and he lost his lecturing positions at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge and Canterbury Christ Church University in Kent. Starkey also resigned from the board of the Mary Rose Trust and his publisher HarperCollins severed ties following these comments. Lancaster University and the University of Buckingham also revoked his honorary doctorates after this.
Starkey apologised after, recognising what he said as “a serious error for which I have already paid a significant price”.
In 2011, Starkey made similar comments on BBC’s Newsnight during the London Riots, when he said “the whites have become blacks” in reference to ‘CHAVs’, going further to state the language they use was ‘a Jamaican patois that has intruded on England.’
After these comments, OfCom, the official broadcast regulator, received 892 complaints overnight.
The Instagram post for the KCLCA Christmas dinner concludes “tickets in bio!” yet if you follow the Linktree you’ll see that the tickets cost £115.50. As of 21 November, there is no known way to get a discounted ticket, and £115.50 is the only price available.
This event will be hosted off-campus at the Oxford & Cambridge Club in Mayfair.
This follows the controversial association’s suspension over the summer, following repeated allegations that emerged from the conduct of their “Port and Policy” debates, involving racist and sexist language, and a member of the audience carrying a fascist armband. A suspended student society cannot host events on campus.
In an interview with Roar, the KCLCA President said that they had attempted to appeal their suspension but were unsuccessful.
The President of the KCLCA declined to comment.
Roar has also approached the KCLSU for comment.
Editor’s Note: This article was updated on 28 November to recognise the fact that Starkey apologised after the podcast in 2020.
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