‘Is that a terrorist?’
Prince Philip puts his foot in it again
HE may have retired from official duties, but Prince Philip clearly still has the gift of the gaffe.
The Duke of Edinburgh raised eyebrows yesterday after pointing at a bearded man in a crowd of well-wishers and quipping to a police bodyguard: ‘Is that a terrorist?’
However, the butt of his joke – a man in his 30s with a long ginger beard – is said to have seen the funny side and laughed when he overheard.
Prince Philip, 96, led members of the royal family and their guests on the 400-yard walk from Sandringham House in Norfolk to St Mary Magdalene Church. There was a large police presence, and an onlooker said many in the crowd were frisked and scanned by officers.
He added: ‘The man appeared to be with his wife and child. Philip was wishing people a happy New Year and then he spotted this guy with his distinctive beard. He pointed at him in a funny way and turned to one of his bodyguards, saying, “Is that a terrorist?”
‘He was obviously having a little joke, but he said it within earshot of the man, who burst out laughing and appeared to find the whole thing hilarious.
‘I think Philip knew he was going to be overheard. I’m sure Philip didn’t mean any harm. Prince Harry has a ginger beard, so perhaps Philip had been cracking jokes about that over Christmas.’ Ian Smith, 39, who was at the church with his wife and two children, said: ‘Everyone knows Prince Philip has a sense of humour – although some might have thought it a risqué comment.’
The bearded man left before he could be asked to respond.
Prince Philip walked with Princess Anne yesterday, and they were followed by her husband Timothy Laurence, Prince Edward and his 14-yearold daughter, Lady Louise.
The Queen, 91, was driven to the 16th-century church with Sophie, Countess of Wessex.
Philip’s quip about the bearded bystander is just the latest in a long series of gaffes stretching back decades. During a visit to Canada in 1969, he joked, ‘I declare this thing open, whatever it is’, and in 1999, pointing at an old-fashioned fusebox in a factory near Edinburgh, he said: ‘It looks as if it was put in by an Indian.’
On meeting a driving instructor in Scotland in 1995, he asked: ‘How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to get them through the test?’
In 2011 the Queen asked British army cadet Stephen Menary, 16, who lost an arm and most of his sight in an IRA bomb, how much he could see. Philip interjected: ‘Not a lot, judging by the tie he’s wearing.’
His most infamous gaffe came in 1986 when he warned a British student in China: ‘If you stay here much longer you’ll be slitty-eyed.’