Thursday, October 29, 2009



Prince Philip still likes a joke



We read:
"Britain's Prince Philip has reportedly made one of his notorious gaffes by joking with a British-Indian business leader about his name, a newspaper said.

During a reception at Buckingham Palace for some 400 influential British Indians, the husband of the Queen greeted Atul Patel by glancing at his name tag and saying: "There's a lot of your family in tonight."

According to The Sun newspaper, the comment appeared to suggest that all Patels are related. Patel is a common Indian surname, and there are an estimated 670,000 Patels living in Britain, the tabloid said.

A spokesman for Patel, who is chief executive of leading housing association the LHA-Asra group, said no offence was taken by the remark. "Absolutely no offence was taken at all by Atul. It was taken in a very light hearted way," the spokesman told the newspaper....

The prince's comment was condemned by Republic, a group campaigning to abolish the monarchy, as "deeply embarrassing"...

The 88-year-old prince is well known for undiplomatic off-hand remarks, which have included:

- "Still throwing spears?" (a question to an Australian Aborigine during a 2002 visit)

- "You managed not to get eaten, then?" (to a student who had been trekking in Papua New Guinea, 1998).

Source

"Patel" means landlord, which is why it is common.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Political correctness should be made a major crime in Britain, and everywhere else. Then, let the public hangings begin!

Malcolm Smith said...

Strangely enough, I never get embarrassed when it is suggested I belong to the largest tribe in the English speaking world.

J. Hooker said...

I thought I did!

Dean said...

Go Prince Philip! Someone has to uphold political incorrectness.

Too bad the rest of the Western World doesn't have Prince Philip's attitude and fortitude.

Anonymous said...

what? that was funny! keep it up Prince!

Anonymous said...

I just wonder if the old Prince realizes he is one of a very few (and Italy's Berlisconi) who still have some balls. BRAVO!!

Anonymous said...

Prince Philip was a stateless immigrant who now lives on welfare (tax payers)!

Anonymous said...

He's a kept man (by his rich wife). His close German relatives (some with Nazi links) weren't allowed to come to their wedding in 1947 so soon after WWII in case it would've been bad publicity for the future of the monarchy.