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.

IMHO, that actually makes it much worse; not better - and indicative of his dismissive negative attitude to people from non-white backgrounds.

"Whatever - I can't be bothered to think before I speak; I just know that they're all incompetent charlatans, every one of them interchangeably". He could have said 'rogues', 'scammers', 'bodgers', 'crooks'.... plenty of 100% negative words to choose from that are based on somebody's deliberate dishonest actions and don't happen to bear any resemblance to a nationality/race.

The royals like to make out that they don't have any real power, but that they work very hard as ambassadors and representatives of the country. If they can't even do that without causing gross offence on behalf of the whole country, what on earth is the point of them? At least Gerald Ratner only spoke on behalf of his own company and not the entire nation.

PP was also still driving 20 years after that event, so I don't think we can write him off as having been old and too doddery to be responsible for anything that he said or did back then.

Interesting. I’ve mentioned in other threads that I was taken to see the Black and White Mi steels as a very young child. I’m 61 now. It felt very uncomfortable and wrong to me. Couldn’t have explained why, it just did.

As for Philip, who was going to stop him? He wasn’t the sharpest tool in the box. Probably not overloaded with sensitivity or empathy, either.

Pretty weird that an 18 year old naval officer entered into regular correspondence with a 13 year old child princess, too.

DofE had no power, so he was seen as an occasionally embarrassing side kick to the queen. Boris Johnson however with his jibes about pillar boxes and pickaninnies, was PM and represented us on the world stage, yet he got away with it too. Seems we tolerate causal racism if it’s “just a joke”.

It wasn't acceptable then, as evidenced by the fact you remember it, there was a huge fuss at the time, but he was almost 80 then, so was from a different time.

Also I think it might have been a symptom of his age and he meant cowboys.

This is the problem, nobody knows, as it seems that every other day something becomes offensive to someone , who wasnt offended th day before 😉

I suspect Prince Philip felt the same way about the things he said that others have deemed to be offensive.

Pot calling the kettle black.

Stop him how? Also there’s people now saying the most outrageous things (eg Andrew Tate) and they are permitted to do so. It’s not just something that happened in the past. People took offence at the time when PP said this stuff but that’s about all that can happen really. Unless you think he should have been stripped of his title or something.

Exactly. In fact, he was a racist, classist pillock, but I suppose if you're kowtowing, you want to convince yourself the person you're kowtowing to has some worth.

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

I have always felt sorry for Prince P about this particular one. He was so clearly thinking of the expression “a cowboy job”. He was trying to find expression, his brain thought of cowboys and Indians and he said Indian. Perhaps people don’t use that expression anymore.

I know that most people on here are highly intelligent, don’t get muddled and don’t have people pick up on what they say. But for some of us, it’s a mistake that’s readily understandable.

From what I remember the Chinese weren’t offended at all and it was reported at the time that Chinese elders would tell the younger generation not to stay too long in the West as they might become round eyed.

What was the last example you heard?

“The Chinese”?

Who all feel exactly the same way. Obviously 🙄

Yes, you’ve entirely missed the racism. Definitely “not what everyone else was thinking.” If you were thinking it, that makes you racist too.

Geez, he said a few things over a 70 year period of doing public engagements and journalists kept repeating the same few things he said. Was the Queen supposed to divorce him or cut off his pocket money or something?

Whether you approved of Prince Philip or not, what is the point in complaining about the language/mannerisms of somebody who has been dead for nearly 5 years? Give it a rest.

Agree. It’s ridiculous to measure Philip by today’s standards.

It also shows the absolute inability of many people to view the world as anything other than black and white, right and wrong - there are no shades of grey.

Yes, he was an offensive boor and probably casually racist, at a time when that was not uncommon. 30 years ago when shows like these were on, he would have been in his 70s. So right up to his old age, sexism and racism were on mainstream TV

we should all have a bit of resilience and think about the context.

I think that this is a very good point. Prince Philip was white and privileged and came from a very different background and era to many of us. This doesn't excuse his behavior but you have to judge the words of someone based on the time and the place, not on the thinking of today. I recall as a child growing up that we referred to mixed race people as 'half-cast' - now I understand that this is offensive but at the time is wasn't seen as so. Language moves on, as does our perception on what is or isn't acceptable.

Well if he can’t be stopped from blurting offensive racist comments he should not have been in public life. And if they couldn’t stop him being in public life, there should have been heartfelt apologies for his comments issued by the Queen.

Oh yes, the same Queen who didn’t have a problem with her beloved son Andrew.

The whole family is messed up and they don’t deserve their positions or wealth or privilege.

Because he was the Queen Husband and the Queen could do what ever she wants. We have elected representatives but we aren't a republic. It's fortunate we haven't had a off with their head type monarch for a few hundred years.

So…what? Do we retrospectively cancel him, or…?

I mean what’s the actual point?

I think @CurlewKate is being ironic here, not saying this is how she viewed him.

People love Princess Ann but I see her as quite rude and haughty. I remember a video of her tripping over in high heels and someone trying to help her up and she was really rude to them. I believe she also called someone stupid at an Olympic committee. Sometimes when someone rich and powerful is described as "not suffering fools" it just means they're rude.

Autres temps, autres moeurs, OP. Twenty years hence, there is bound to be something on these pages that will cause a sharp intake of breath - it’s just how things go.

There is a clear difference between Andrew Tate and the spouse of the monarch who literally represents our country.

Different behavioural standards apply to different roles.

How would parents react if a primary school teacher said “don’t hang around with Mavis too much, you’ll get slitty eyes.”

I grew up in the 70s/80s and we already knew not to use offensive and racist names and words. What’s Phillip’s excuse?

You've just trotted out the most high profile examples from an era when racism sexism xenophobia and homophobia were rife. These kind of jokes were all over the BBC. He was "of his time" and they were acknowledged as gaffes at the time. If prince William said these things now he'd be pilloried but rightly so.

What a pointless thread. He's been dead years.