Why was Prince Philip allowed to keep saying offensive things?

[SewANeedlePullingThread]

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.

But we were shocked at the time - it was other times but still other times in which Phillip’s language was outrageous.

Did you mean to be so bloody rude?

It wasn't considered OK at the time though. Most decent people at the time would never say something like that. Obviously some people would have been cheering him on just as some would if it was said now.

Yes I expect the Queen to uphold standards. If she cannot control him, he should have been kept out of sight.

He was married to the Head of State; he could do pretty much what he liked within reason and within whatever leverage she had with him.

They are a family with a vast sense of entitlement cloaked in a brilliant & mesmerizing dance of humility which most of us swallow like grateful eejits.

Prince Andrew is the worst extreme but his behaviour does come out of that family’s inability to manage money and public/private behaviour. His problematic life has gone for so many decades - clearly their inability to address it is proof that the institution doesn’t function for modern times.

It is all smoke and mirrors so they can keep from paying death duties, real taxes and keeping their subsidized housing.

Transparency should be a minimum expectation now I think.

To not let him have such a public role?

He was not the monarch,he was the spouse of the monarch. If he had been a woman,married to a King,he very likely not have been allowed to come out with such things on such a regular basis. To a certain extend,because he was a man,he was given more importance than he had been a woman in the same role.

Can you provide a comprehensive list of all the white aristocratic "racists"?

I did.

The Queens only concern was to uphold the Queen. All else was irrelevant.

(I must admit to some amusement about being pulled up for being rude on a thread about Prince Philip.)

How do you know what most decent people thought at the time, or how many decent people there were?

Define ‘decent’.

It could be a tiny minority of the population as a whole.

And you think he would have cared about not being trotted out in public? I reckon he’d have loved it. Wave Liz off in the morning and have a day of doing bugger all.

He wouldn’t have given a toss.

Philip was in his mid-late 60s by the time of the mid-80s you were referring to. I would hope that people in their mid-60s now wouldn’t make those comments unchallenged but they have had many more years of better thinking to absorb and inform their views (and even then, as we can see in so many debates on immigration, people of all ages still have offensive views). I think it’s largely irrelevant now, surely? Unless Charles or William etc start those sort of comments (and maybe they do: Prince H’s argument points that way) I think it’s a case of move on. No?

She didn't find any difficulty whatsoever in keeping Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon out of sight and mind - even though their conditions were through no fault of their own.

It's interesting how, if a royal male is looking to marry, his potential bride is scrutinised beforehand and subjected to a whole load of medical, background and character checks before being 'accepted'; yet when a tactless and deliberately nasty buffoon like him was suggested as a suitable spouse for a princess who would one day become Queen, with the clear job of suitably representing their country being an extremely large part of it, nobody had the slightest objection.

Tbf I met him at an event with school children. He was far more considerate and down to earth than any other adults present. He separated himself from the main party to talk to the children, he asked questions and showed interest. Made a non PC comment to an adult I overheard later (who laughed) but it was balanced against the fact that if it wasn’t for him the children would have been standing outside being roundly ignored. The children were disappointed until he walked over. He came across to me as complex- not just the pantomime figure he’s portrayed as

This came up as a trending thread.

He was revolting. Had he not been who he was, he'd have been notorious as the rude, curmudgeonly, racist, thoroughly unpleasant person he gave every impression of being.

I think he liked being important,so,yes he would have cared.

And frankly, I care less about what an elderly man said/didn’t say and a LOT more about the behaviour of Prince Andrew that the Queen actively enabled (by not taking action at the outset). So OP I think you’ve got the wrong target 🤷🏻‍♀️

Possibly, having read around it, he only did it to support the Queen, not because he enjoyed it.

If anyone shouts “source?”, just read it online.

😂

Oh come on.

He was mentioned in despatches during the second world war for gallantry and service in the Royal Navy... I doubt some erk one quarter his age with a piece of paper from the University of Bognor Regis was going to be able to 'educate' or indoctrinated /probe him.

His role was due to the fact that he was the Queen's husband. There was no interview or opportunity to reprogrammed his thoughts under threat of losing his job or being cancelled. Thank god.

It was a different time. You'd be far more upset and insulted if the nazis had been given the chance to invade the UK when actually the thought police (gestapo) would happily end your life if you didn't conform. The dominance of the Royal Navy in the North Sea and Channel had a big impact on Adolf and Hermann's decision...

Leave his legacy be. The man did a lot of good as well and led a life well lived. He was a rock to his wife for 70 years.

That's far more a legacy than a few dubious comments. Please read up on history and his part before any more inflammatory dumb-ness.

Sounds like something he would have said.

Lol. he wasn't suggested by anyone (other than his uncle) she chose him herself, and there were a lot of objections. Do you think in the 1940s he was any different to any other young naval officer, any more objectionable?

As for her cousins, they were severely disabled and non verbal, and were institutionalised by their mother in the 1930s when QE2 was just a child, she has nothing to do with it. Plus that's what most people did at that time, in all sections of society. It was the norm. It's not even clear if she knew they were still alive, but what should she have done anyway? Hauled them out from where they'd lived for years and put them...where exactly? Doing what?

By “most of us” I assume you mean racists? Or white people in general?

No, probably meant most, not including the professionally offended on here.