“In the event that I am reincarnated, I would like to return as a deadly virus, to contribute something to solving overpopulation” and 25 other Prince Philip Quotes (in place of an obituary)

Here is a potted history of Prince Philip’s callousness and bigotry:

Bigotry: 13 examples

“And what exotic part of the world do you come from?” Asked in 1999 of Tory politician John Taylor, whose parents are Jamaican. He replied: “Birmingham.” When your class is pretty much exclusively white, it’s no surprise if your concept of Britishness is decidedly monochrome.

“Do you still throw spears at each other?” Prince Philip demanded of Aboriginal leader William Brin at the Aboriginal Cultural Park in Queensland, 2002. Where to start? When you represent a nation that committed genocide against Aborigines, making racist jokes to their face literally adds insult to injury.

“So who’s on drugs here?… He looks as if he’s on drugs.” To a 14-year-old member of a Bangladeshi youth club in 2002. This arrogant fossil, standard-bearer of antediluvian views, is like a cartoon villain whose sense of humour consists of saying something bigoted and then guffawing at his own hilarity. This is Philip’s idea of ‘getting down with the kids’.

Talking to a British student who had been trekking in Papua New Guinea: “You managed not to get eaten then?” When incest is your family past-time, you don’t get to make out you’re the civilised one in any conversation.

On his way to church at Sandringham, Prince Philip spotted a man with a long ginger beard. He then pointed at the man and shouted: “Is that a terrorist?” Surely uniforms of the British armed forces would be a much better indicator of terrorism than long ginger beards?

“Who do you sponge off?” To the volunteers for an Asian women’s group at an east London community centre. The self-awareness of this man is legendary; sponging off the British tax-payer to the tune of millions.  

“If you stay here much longer, you will go home with slitty eyes.” To 21-year-old British student during a visit to China in 1986. Imagine if he weren’t surrounded by armed bodyguards at all times – I’d hope his sick sense of humour would have been beaten out of him by now.

“How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to pass the test?” Asked of a Scottish driving instructor in 1995. The wit on this man is astounding, please someone give him a spot at the Edinburgh Fringe. I mean, if they accept Jack Whitehall…

“It looks as though it was put in by an Indian.” He said of a fuse box he spotted during a tour of a Scottish factory in 1999. He later clarified his comment: “I meant to say cowboys. I just got my cowboys and Indians mixed up”, as you do. Don’t worry, Philip, I’m sure this clever excuse will convince everyone. No-one will suspect you of being a racist, yet again, I’m sure.

“There’s a lot of your family in tonight.” After learning business chief Atul Patel’s name during a 2009 Buckingham Palace reception for 400 influential British Indians to meet the Royal couple. Again, weird thing to say from a family whose imagination can’t extend beyond George, Edward, Henry or William for boy’s names.

“If it has 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.” Said to a World Wildlife Fund meeting in 1986, where he is now President Emeritus. This is a guy who proudly posed with a tiger he slew. On the same hunt he also killed 6 sheep, stag, pheasant, grouse and a crocodile, despite protests from Indian politicians. He has shot at least 30,000 pheasants in Britain alone. Philip has also hunted deer, rabbit, hare, duck, snipe, woodcock, teal, pigeon and partridge in the UK. Philip’s comment would work if he applied it to himself about what he enjoys slaughtering.

“You must be out of your minds.” To Solomon Islanders, on being told that their population growth was 5 per cent a year, in 1982. Philip has also said that if he were reincarnated he’d come back as a virus and wipe out much of humanity. And we all know which continents’ populations he’d attack.

These so-called ‘gaffes’ (the connotation being that these comments are mere mistakes, momentary slips interrupting an otherwise impeccable record of tolerance and egalitarianism), take on a more sinister hue in the context of Philip’s family background.

Three of his sisters married Nazis from the German aristocracy – one became a director in the Third Reich Air Ministry and chief of Goering’s secret intelligence. Philip marched in the funeral procession of his sister and her husband, in (goose) step with a phalanx of elite Nazis in uniform – Brownshirts, full SS regalia – while onlookers sieg-heiled. His youngest sister, Sophie, sat opposite Hitler at Goering’s wedding. She also had a private lunch with the Fuhrer, of whom she named her first son in honour – giving him the middle name ‘Adolph’.

In 2006 Philip explained that his family found Hitler’s attempts to restore Germany’s power and prestige ‘attractive’. ‘There was a great improvement in things like trains running on time and building… there was a sense of hope after the depressing chaos of the Weimar Republic. I can understand people latching on to something or somebody who appeared to be appealing to their patriotism and trying to get things going. You can understand how attractive it was … although … I changed [my] political view fundamentally some years later, we were impressed by this charming and seemingly modest man, and by his plans to change and improve the situation in Germany’. This is straight-up Nazi apologia. Hitler’s plans were no secret. Fascism was not a mystery. You only had to listen to speeches or read their pamphlets to understand that people of colour, Jews, travellers, gays, women and the working class in general would be under attack from Nazi rule. To pretend otherwise is to be obtuse in the extreme. Meanwhile Philip has claimed he was never ‘conscious of anybody in the family actually expressing anti-Semitic views’. But he added that there were ‘inhibitions about the Jews’ and ‘jealousy of their success’. The Nazis were boycotting Jewish business, burning books and purging Jews from the civil service as soon as they got into power in 1933. Philip’s family and the Windsors knew all too well what Nazism was all about.

A Callous Bully: 12 examples:

As well as being a bigot, Philip is a callous bully, as these examples show. There is nothing charming, or cute about this old Nazi-sympathiser (and just as bad, a British Royal).

He told a 13 year old who’d said he wanted to be an astronaut that he “could do with losing weight”. The poor lad later said “the other people were laughing but I didn’t find it a very good joke because I am sensitive about my weight. I felt like crying but I had to keep a strong face”.

“People usually say that after a fire it is water damage that is the worst. We are still drying out Windsor Castle.” To survivors of the Lockerbie bombings in 1993.

On the recession in 1981: “A few years ago, everybody was saying we must have more leisure, everyone’s working too much. Now that everybody’s got more leisure time they are complaining they are unemployed. People don’t seem to make up their minds what they want.” These Royals simply don’t understand the concept of work, nor the idea of having to work to survive.

“The problem with London is the tourists. They cause the congestion. If we could just stop the tourism, we could stop the congestion.” At the opening of City Hall in 2002. This is a funny one, considering tourists are one of the biggest justifications put forward by Royalists.

“Holidays are curious things, aren’t they? You send children to school to get them out of your hair. Then they come back and make life difficult for parents. That is why holidays are set so they are just about the limit of your endurance.” At the opening of a school in 2000. Royalty don’t even bring up their own children, that would just be too much hard work for them.

“You ARE a woman, aren’t you?” To a woman in Kenya in 1984, after accepting a gift.

At a Buckingham Palace drinks party, to a group of female MPs: “Ah, so this is feminist corner then.” Elizabeth is a lucky woman, is all I can say.

 “It was part of the fortunes of war. 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!” On the issue of counselling for the armed forces in a TV documentary marking the 50th Anniversary of VJ Day in 1995. For all their militarism, and all the palaver they make about their respect for the British armed forces, this is the reality: they don’t care at all. They just want cannon fodder to die on their behalf and keep them in ermine.

Finally, when asked if he’d like to visit the USSR in 1967, he replied: “I would like to go to Russia very much – although the bastards murdered half my family.” It’s too late for Philip to face such justice, but Beelzebub has a devil put aside for him.

Refs:

https://revoltingsubject.wordpress.com/2015/07/22/5-moments-the-royals-proved-they-are-shit-at-their-job/

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/prince-philip-stands-down-95-public-gaffes-age-years-queen-elizabeth-ii-buckingham-palace-a7717326.html

http://royalcentral.co.uk/uk/dukeofedinburgh/new-years-gaffe-prince-philip-spots-a-man-with-a-beard-and-shouts-is-that-a-terrorist-94199

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/prince-philip-proudly-poses-tiger-6174056

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3167585/Philip-Nazi-funeral-day-sister-lunch-Hitler-TV-documentary-reopens-painful-chapter-duke-s-family-past.html