It’s time we locked this embarrassing relic away

SO the Prince of Prejudice came out of retirement to open his privileged mouth and put his pampered foot straight in it.

Once again, the Duke’s crass comments show he’s a relic, redundant in modern Britain. Philip Mountbatten is a national embarrassment in a fundamentally decent country. Surely there must be a cell in the Tower to lock him away and then misplace the key?

Let’s cut the excuses when ignorant stereotypes, beards carrying a whiff of Islamophobia, divide rather than unite us. I’d like to know which parts of Phil’s “unique sense of humour” the Queen was referring to in her Christmas message.

Was it quips about “slitty-eyed” Chinese, cannibals in Papua New Guinea or pot-bellied Hungarians?

Or asking the dance group Diversity if they were one family? Perhaps asking women in a community centre who they sponged off – another instance of a bloke on the public payroll courtesy of marriage lacking self-awareness.

That the bloke with the beard laughed isn’t the point. The point is the Prince of Prejudice is a national liability. Retire him properly, gagged and locked out of sight.