Prince Philip's wayward tongue
Prince Philip has made numerous gaffes over the years, offending many. Here are some of the more notable
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2000s
- “Still throwing spears?” (Question put to an Australian Aborigine during a visit in March 2002)
1990s
- “It looks as if it was put in by an Indian.” (In 1999, referring to an old-fashioned fuse box in a factory near Edinburgh)
- “Deaf? If you are near there, no wonder you are deaf.” (In 1999, to young deaf people in Cardiff, referring to a school's steel band)
- “You managed not to get eaten, then?” (In 1998, to a student who had been trekking in Papua New Guinea)
- “Bloody silly fool!” (In 1997, referring to a Cambridge University car park attendant who failed to recognise him)
- “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?” (In 1996, amid calls to ban firearms after the Dunblane shooting)
- “We didn’t have counsellors rushing around every time somebody let off a gun, asking ‘Are you all right? Are you sure you don’t have a ghastly problem?’ You just got on with it.” (commenting in 1995 on modern stress counselling for servicemen)
- “Aren’t most of you descended from pirates?” (In 1994, to an islander in the Cayman Islands) “You can’t have been here that long – you haven’t got a pot belly.” (In 1993, to a Briton in Budapest, Hungary)
- “Oh no, I might catch some ghastly disease.” (In 1992 in Australia, when asked to stroke a Koala bear)
- “Your country is one of the most notorious centres of trading in endangered species in the world.” (In 1991, in Thailand, after accepting a conservation award)
1980s
- “Everybody was saying we must have more leisure. Now they are complaining they are unemployed.” (during the 1981 recession)
- "They must be out of their minds." (In 1982, in the Solomon Islands, after being told that the annual population growth was only 5%)
- "You are a woman, aren't you?" (In 1984, in Kenya, to a native woman who had presented him with a small gift)
- "If it has got four legs and it is not a chair, if it has got two wings and it flies but is not an aeroplane, and if it swims and it is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it." (at a 1986 World Wildlife Fund meeting)
1960s
- “British women can’t cook.” (1966)
Source: BBC.
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