Why was Prince Philip allowed to keep saying offensive things?

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There are so many examples of Philip saying offensive things such as:

"If you stay here much longer you'll all be slitty-eyed." This was said to a group of students during a royal visit to China.

"If a cricketer, for instance, suddenly decided to go into a school and batter a lot of people to death with a cricket bat, which he could do very easily, I mean, are you going to ban cricket bats?" This was said in response to calls to ban guns after the Dunblane incident.

"It looks as if it was put in by an Indian." This was Philip talking about a fuse box in a factory.

There are so many more examples. Why was he allowed to act this way whilst representing the Royal Family? I like a laugh, I can take a joke, but he was so often just really offensive.

I think in Philip's lifetime he might have met 500,000 separate people who were a different race to him.

The contemporary press just delighted in printing the 8 or 10 lines which directly insulted 8 or 10 people. Hundreds of thousands of people whom he met most likely enjoyed his presence, more so as they physically turned out to see him... They didn't just bump into the bloke in Safeway. They were not of his race too.

Indirectly, yes his words upset many people, fanned by the tabloids and lack of context. He apologised. His press office apologised. His corgi apologised.

He may have been a racist. He may not. I didn't know him. You didn't know him. He was both good and bad, a flawed human. Aren't we all? (bar mother Theresa, Florence Nightingale and anyone branded a 'national treasure' ...)

But the language used on this thread, the lack of respect towards the man, the late queen's husband, is off the scale by people who weren't really affected by him as much as they 'feel'. Boris was PM when going on about hijabs, letterboxes and vacuous wiffwaff. He had power, influence, billions of taxpayers money to spend and dish out. Philip had none of this, bar a few loyal ponies, a few rickety but deadly carriages, and the ear of her majesty the queen.

Let him rest in peace, Philip not Boris, and move on. Other people have wronged you far more in life....

'feelings' and being 'offended' don't top trump facts. History can't be rewritten based on a few seconds of his life.

Out of interest, why should I have any respect for him?

Er, queen's husband for 70+ years. A rock. Much loved by her.

Lived into his 90s. An achievement for anyone.

Fought for democracy so we don't speak German and you can say what you like without fear of your life or that of your family being shortened. Today you can publicly state 'I am offended!' and be as rude as you like.

But, to be honest, I doubt he cared much about you either. His loss, hey. When you've achieved all the above 3 (let's say the 1st one is marriage to anyone for 70 years), then give yourself a pat on the back. :)

Those are achievements - how low is the bar now???

1. So he was married to the richest woman in the country who provided servants for his every need - no wonder he stayed with her!
2. He lived a long time - if everyone in the UK got the same medical care as the Royal family we'd all probably live longer - also it's not like he spent 40 years working down a pit is it?
3. He fought in WW2 - yes he did, this was a genuine achievement, as it was for all who served & risked their lives.

So really it's just the third one - which whilst very good - doesn't excuse 50 years of terrible/racist behaviour afterwards.

Wow. How to 'twist' each of my 3 points.

You must be very bitter.

He's dead. You've outlived him. Well done.

It's a very small percentage of the population who are married 70 years and live to their 90s. Money doesn't guarantee either.

I do like the statement '50 years of racist behaviour'... What, every day? Even with 1 dubious comment a day, that's 365 x 50, so over 18,000 dodgy comments...

I think there's maybe a dozen out there, often reprinted by the papers, regurgitated.

So you have 12 examples, but claim 18,000 separate incidents... Que????

Or was he racist on 2 march 1965 and again on 5 February 1985... So does that count as 20 years????

Good grief. Clutching. At. Straws.

Has anyone suggested that he had Alzheimer’s yet?

The Queen would never have divorced so claiming that being married to her for 70 years is an achievement is 🙄. Living a long life deserves respect now? wow. Most will be down to genes and access to medical care. Some very good people, worthy of respect die young.

Fighting in a war does not cancel his long list of bad behaviour.

I’m struggling to take certain posters seriously.

What is this 'long list' though? It's a few separate incidents.

Good grief, Michelle mone has taken far more from your pocket than this man ever did, Paula vennells affected lives far worse, Boris inflamed racial tension far more recently, priti the same, but all 4 of the above personally affected your life far more than Philip ever did.

Be offended by them. Direct your blame for whatever has be fallen your life there. Whatever happens, phillip's grandchildren, great grandchildren, great great grandchildren, and their corgis, will always be richer than yours and mine. Cancel him or all the royals, they will always be ahead as we live in a capitalist but free society.

You need to go and see Vladamir. He's the man for you :)

How many times have you said a racist comment? I’m 46 and for me, that would be zero.

Have you ever said creepy comments to strangers? How about insensitive comments about a mass shooting which killed children at school or inappropriate comments to deaf people or called a child fat?

People can make mistakes, but if they’re good people, they learn from them. Philip didn’t because he showed a pattern of terrible behaviour that spanned decades. It is not cancelled out by anything and he isn’t deserving of my respect.

He's dead. It was very different days.

Vlad the Impaler was very racist about Romanians.

If we compare then with now, everyone from history will be cancelled. Churchill went from the 'greatest briton' in the year 2000, to being half cancelled by the National Trust for his policies in India in the 40s.

At 46, you have had half his life, and a very different life. You may well be cancelled yourself in the year 2100 after burning oil, running a car or home and wrecking the planet. "ah, but I'm not a racist!" you exclaim with glee and righteousness, as your granddaughter watches her coastal home wash away and the last polar bear on CGI eating a waldorf salad.

No, the Queen might never have divorced - but their body language etc when together was always positive, so they were obviously happy. If Phil had no ability to behave as expected, we'd have seen many signs that he was only with her due to the role/lifestyle

He behaved terribly on many occasions.

Philip had none of this, bar a few loyal ponies, a few rickety but deadly carriages, and the ear of her majesty the queen.

I am usually very good at this but I haven't quite worked out when you are winding us up!
You talk about Philip's naval career like he won WW2 all on his own and without just him we would all be speaking German!
And you are also missing the point that even though he held a good naval career, that does not cancel out decades of offensive comments.
You repeatedly ignore this point like anyone who has served with distinction in the Forces can behave how they like after they leave
No. They. Can't.

Yes he stood by the queen for 70 years but my god what a privileged life he led whilst married to her. He was paid £280k p.a. up until his death for that privilege and lucky for him his Will was sealed because he wasnt exactly a faithful husband.

That's exactly my point!
If he was only with the Queen for the lifestyle, there would have been occasions where they wouldn't have looked happy together in public. It's hard to continually fake liking someone

So she was happy to be with a man who was racist, pervy and inappropriate? Good to know. If they were indeed happy, that’s doesn’t reflect well on her.

I think it’s most likely that she was ok with it, but that she wouldn’t have wanted to divorce anyway due to her beliefs.

I mean, that's your take on it. It's not mine.

I have no idea whether they were happy together or not. But they very rarely looked actively happy. Obviously that doesn’t mean they weren’t. But we can’t possibly tell.

Who knows if they were happy?

But the queen's sister got a divorce. All her children got a divorce. A grandchild got a divorce. I'm sure that she knew the song D I V O R C E.

But, she clearly loved Philip and didn't want one. Maybe he didn't make his comments as often as people on her believe... Maybe she also got tired on the press twisting things, regurgitating and forgetting context. They were a goid team in consequence

Surely it would be a much, much bigger deal for a currently-reigning monarch to divorce than one of their siblings who was never going to be the monarch, or one of their children before they became monarch?

Coming to the throne at such a young age, Elizabeth obviously had far less of an opportunity to divorce more simply if she had decided that continuing being married to Philip wasn't what she wanted. Yes, Charles won't be the monarch for anywhere near as long, but he had the relative freedom to divorce in his 50s.

Considering that the coronation ceremony also crowns your spouse as your consort, it would surely be very, very serious to have to dissolve that after a divorce, if even possible. As Henry VIII found, it was initially easier to arrange for your spouse to die than to have to actually divorce them.

Twisting things and forgetting context? 🧐

I hope one day to be loved as much as a Mumsnet royalist loves a mediocre member of the Royal Family!🤣🤣🤣

What do expect snogs and hugs in public? If they were unhappy I think it may have snuck out in the media gossip.

Obviously there wouldn’t have been PDAs. But there was plenty of gossip….I’m old enough to remember.