Philip puts his foot in it – this time on terror
Duke, 96, jokes that bearded wellwisher at church looks like a terrorist
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 wellwishers and quipping to a police bodyguard: ‘Is that a terrorist?’
However, the butt of his joke – a man in his thirties with a long ginger beard – is said to have seen the funny side.
Prince Philip, 96, led members of the Royal Family and their guests on the 400yard 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 who had gone to see the royals 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
‘Some might have thought it risqué’
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 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, Sir Timothy Laurence, Prince Edward and his daughter, Lady Louise. Prince Charles and wife Camilla are spending New Year at Birkhall, their home on the Balmoral Estate. After missing last year’s New Year service through illness, the Queen, 91, was driven from Sandringham to the 16th century church with Sophie, Countess of Wessex.
The Duke’s quip about the beard is the latest in a decadeslong series of gaffes.
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 Oban, Argyll, 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 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.’
After tenor Russell Watson sang Jerusalem at Buckingham Palace in the same year, the Duke asked him: ‘Why do you need a bloody microphone? They could have heard you in outer space.’
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.’