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.

Sorry to nitpick, but the language clearly was acceptable at that time if 'The shop local to us was known by a commonly racist epithet that most kids at school used.'

By 'acceptable', I'm referring to society at large, rather than the people running the shop.

Some of those comments were made decades ago and I'm sure there will be some RF fanatic apologists who'll say it was a different time, he had a different upbringing, he wasn't REALLY racist, etc etc ...

but plenty of us cringed and were angry about it at the time! I remember the 'Put in by an Indian' comment, and one about eyes ... it was in the 80's/90's - it was unacceptable then and still is unacceptable. For one thing, it wasn't nicely meant - he wasn't being unthinkingly racist in a good-natured way (which is still awful, but I hope people can see the difference in intent). He was being a rude, surly old curmudgeon who could say whatever he fancied every time he opened his mouth, because absolutely nobody was going to have a word in his ear. Not even Brenda, apparently. He was a disgrace.

What an absolutely fabulous post. That's nailed it @Diamond7272

I watched a documentary on Dave Allen on YouTube the other night. He explained his humour very eloquently I thought. The BBC received many complaints at the time of his irreverence.

Just listen to yourself.

This was my understanding of the comment too.

Perhaps not to you, but I found them offensive.

I always thought it was partly his age and his of his time - many of us had older relatives like this - and half because people involved and who heard the remarks not the reporting found him warm and these remarks were taken out of context.

It's only in last few decade being offended and being offend on others behalf often with no consulation had become such a pastime.

It was a few days reporting and headlines and everyone moved on - so it wasn't ignored but wasn't the massive ongoing discussion it would be now. Everyone eyerolled muttered about how inappropriate he was and moved on.

He's now been dead what 5 years - why is it an issue now?

He wasn't a breath of fresh air. He was racist and embarrassing, but I guess we all have our differing opinions 🤔

Perhaps you should take your own advice?

Those things about his gallantry can be true and yet we can still criticise his racism.

Perhaps you shouldn't get so offended by things eh?

It was never acceptable. If some people recognised that, it's no excuse for others not to. Especially those who set themselves up as 'Highnesses'.

We've seen in recent years exactly how low they stoop, as if they haven't been doing that for a long time. But there are none so blind as people who don't choose to see.

He's been deceased nearly 5 years, so why raise it now?
He was raised at a different time, but from I understand he did NOT have a privileged childhood at all.
Many of the comments were noted and questioned at the time.

Why are you trying to impose your own values and belief systems around race/ethnicity onto a member of another racial group who has made their stance quite clear. Thought we were against That Sort Of Thing?

Isn’t it interesting how racist or otherwise offensive “humour” is always hilarious. Not mildly amusing, or raised a smile. ALWAYS hilarious.

Would you prefer he was nice, like, for example, David Lammy, who thinks men in dresses should be allowed in women's loos, and that men can grow a cervix? Or nice like Jeremy Corbyn, who thinks we should all be more like Venezuela? Or nice like Naz Shah, who thinks that raped children should shut up for the sake of diversity? Which kind of offensive to others is acceptable to you?

This one always springs to mind when people are busy swearing about others using words they disapprove of.

It because he is a member of the 'royal' family and he is better than you.

It's like Andrew was allowed to rape underaged girls and avoid prison.

Perhaps it's time we stopped letting these filthy bastards parade around, taking everyone's money and pretending to be better than us?

Indeed.

Perhaps it's time we stopped letting these filthy bastards parade around, taking everyone's money and pretending to be better than us?

Apparently the tourism makes up for it.

Someone was looking for an example of a straw man argument yesterday….

You might react very differently if you were Chinese or married to one re the comment about eyes, which I am not going to repeat. Just because you find it funny doesn't mean that others have a humour bypass if they don't react to racist "humour".

Why was Prince Philip allowed to keep saying offensive things?

Both Philip and Andrew could do as they pleased. If Philip wanted to say offensive things, who was going to stop him? The Queen certainly did not want to do so.

It's because he was married to the Queen
And along with his privileged life he never had to answer for his actions
I've a friend who treats dementia patients and said that she always thought he was pre-disposed towards that too and not necessarily from as old as assumed