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.

It was a completely different time. For example look at some of the shows on the bbc in the 60s and 70s. We can’t change the past!

Which is exactly why we wouldn’t expect to see high profile, influential people being praised and being seen as a national treasure for using either term as a weapon. The other difference is, if it were used during the commission of a violent act, those wouldn’t be termed as hate crimes as being a white man isn’t a protected characteristic.

Calling out racism is being fanatical about finding offence?

I met him once, he was very funny, and tried incredibly hard to put people at ease. He was just a bit awkward sometimes when making jokes that he didn't intend to be taken seriously, likely due to his upbringing. Not really his fault, he was a product of the times.

Most people who met him found him warm and engaging.

Surely royalists would expect anyone in the royal family to set an example? Phillip certainly didn't!

They don't live by the same rules as you and me, clearly. This is just another example.

@BoredZelda No I'm not talking about those. I'm talking about a tongue in cheek, sense of irony ,very british sense of humour - as far as comedians go Dave Allen was very funny.

Sometimes, yes, given that definitions of racism are not concrete now and depend on the ideological belief system chosen by the person making the accusation of “racism” and “calling it out”.

I stayed in a hotel in Goa and the room's fuse box didn't appear to be Part P compliant...

Some of the things he said were clearly unacceptable, but others were taken out of context.

He once met a blind boy at a Buckingham Palace garden party. Somebody asked the boy if he was blind and Prince Phillip said 'I should bloody well think so, judging by that tie.'

It was reported in the press as 'Price Phillip mocks blind child', but the boy said that he laughed at the joke and it put him at ease. 🤷‍♀️

Give it a fucking rest. Yawn fucking yawn.

Not that long. 4 years I think. He was probably still thinking like that in the 2020s.

Glorious Mumsnet ageism at its best!

what a disgrace - his wife should have had him drawn & quartered

@CurlewKate I'm sick of telling my aunt, who is only 66, not to talk about half caste people, coloured people and still saying that Ashley Cole had no need to cheat on Cheryl "because she's pretty". Some people are intransigent.

👏

Because he was an entitled cunt

FFS this site is full of click bait 💩

I don't want to be rude, but he died 5yrs ago. Why is this taking up space in your mind now? Does it affect you right this minute? Surely there are more important things to focus on.

@FunMustard but that’s exactly my point - a primary school teacher knows not to voice racist views in class. It’s a public space, the teacher sets an example. Prince Phillip lived his life in the public eye - and personally I would expect our monarch and their spouse to be capable of living up to the very highest standards of behaviour.

Yes it's odd how some people take offence on our behalf without considering that we might not be offended by the remark but very irritated by the puffed up indignant person spouting in the media.

Of the shared image quotes, five of them are fine, imo (even rather funny), three are rather horrendous, and two leave me more perturbed than anything else.

Clearly though, he was enormously out of touch, and steeped in casual racism and sexism, and enabled to remain that way without adjusting to modern times due to the way his privilege and position cushioned him from reality.

I still think having a monarchy as a figurehead is preferable to having a president, though - it's better to keep the country's mascots separate from their actual political leaders. And they're all fairly equally corrupt in their private lives.

I don’t have to consult everyone on the planet to decide if I’m offended by someone. I wasn’t offended on your behalf; I was offended full stop. I was upset that these things being brushed off as hilarious gaffes had crossed a line. I wondered, what on earth did he say behind closed doors?

I'm with the poster upthread. My grandfather was born in 1918. I never, once, heard him utter a racist word or attitude in my life.

The shop local to us was known by a commonly racist epithet that most kids at school used. If my parents had heard me using similar language I'd have been in serious trouble.

That language was not acceptable then and it's not acceptable now.

People born into the royal family aren't better than anyone else, and some are a hell of a lot worse.

You find racists jokes about your own race entertaining? What about racist comments against other groups, are they funny too?