UPDATE:  Cambridge Drops Video With Controversial Historian

Students and staff at Cambridge University are demanding that the academic institution drops Dr David Starkey from a major promotional campaign, due to his allegedly racist views, it has emerged.

The well-known historian, who went to Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, fronts a three-minute video which features university alumni such as Professor Stephen Hawking, Sir Ian McKellen, and Lily Cole, in a bid to raise £2 billion for the university.

But the decision by university bosses to choose the controversial figure as a figurehead in the short film, released last month, has been attacked by academics.

Several members of staff at the English department, King’s College, Cambridge, have written an open letter condemning the move.

It cites an appearance by the historian on BBC Newsnight in 2011 when he referred to Enoch Powell’s ‘rivers of blood’ speech as being right “in one sense” and said: “The whites have become black; a particular sort of violent destructive, nihilistic gangster culture has become the fashion.” ...