David Starkey's down with the kids take on culture

David Starkey's view of history is not mine, but I would normally agree to differ. Newsnight on Friday was astonishing and not a little horrifying ( Dreda Say Mitchell, Comment , 15 August). I have heard some historians who are out of touch, but for David Starkey to reach for Enoch Powell and his corruption of intellect to explain lasts week's riots shows his lack of intellectual rigour. To imply that black culture is subsuming white culture is a slightly different and more insidious take on Powell's Rivers of Blood speech. It is no less racist. Thank goodness we have moved on in 40 years. Dr Graham Ullathorne Chesterfield, Derbyshire • David Starkey suggested that a particular youth subculture might have had some relevance in understanding why riots occurred in certain parts of the UK. Dreda Say Mitchell superciliously dismisses his opinion. By suggesting Starkey is implicating all "black folk" she turns a subcultural question into a racial one and thus kicks it into touch. If we seriously want to understand the riots, we cannot afford to be so cavalier. Could Mitchell suggest why the riots occurred in certain cities and not others with similar, if not worse, levels of deprivation. Is she sure cultural differences have no bearing? John Warburton Edinburgh • In her admirable article on her Newsnight discussion with David Starkey, Dreda Say Mitchell says: "We also need informed comment about the rioting against Henry VIII." One such riot took place at Bayham Abbey in East Sussex in 1525, when men with "painted faces and visures" demonstrated against the unpopular actions of the king's chief minister, Thomas Wolsey. Like most riots, it was a multifaceted affair – the consequence of economic deprivation, criminality, political disaffection and all the other currently popular catchphrases. It also occurred at a holiday time when "men through idleness make business". Jeremy Goring St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex • "The whites have become black" is dubious, but there is no doubt that David Starkey is correct that the Jamaican patois used by the young on the streets contributes to the "sense of literally a foreign country" felt by him and many other middle-aged white men. Mind you, that's nothing new. As Pete Townshend put it in the 1960s, "Why don't you all fade away / And don't try to dig what we all say". Chris Parkins Stanmore, Middlesex • The poets ( Letters , 16 August) do indeed get to the heart of the matter. Watching David Starkey brought Yeats to mind: " And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, / Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? " Alasdair Brown Banbury, Oxfordshire