User:John Stephenson/sandbox

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Where... Said to... Alleged to have said... May have offended...[1] According to...
Oban, Scotland Driving instructor "How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to get them through the test?" Scots BBC News, March 2002[2]
China British students "If you stay here much longer, you'll all be slitty-eyed." The Chinese BBC News, March 2002[3]
Kenya Kenyan tribeswoman "You are a woman, aren't you?" Kenyans; Africans BBC News, March 2002[4]
World Wildlife Fund meeting WWF delegates; the world "If it has four legs and is not a chair, has wings and is not an aeroplane, or swims and is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it." The Cantonese; other Chinese people BBC News, March 2002[5]
The world "British women can't cook."[6] Women BBC News, March 2002[7]
Papua New Guinea British student "You managed not to get eaten then?" Papua New Guineans BBC News, March 2002[8]
Lockerbie, Scotland Survivor of the Lockerbie Bombing living on a road where 11 residents had died "People usually say that after a fire it is water damage that is the worst. We are still trying to dry out Windsor Castle." Victims' families; survivors BBC News, March 2002[9]
Cardiff, Wales Teenagers from the British Deaf Association near a Jamaican steel drum band Deaf? If you are near there, no wonder you are deaf." Deaf people; Jamaicans; steel drummers BBC News, March 2002[10]
Australia Australian Aboriginals "Still throwing spears?" Aboriginal people[11] BBC News, March 2002[12]
Budapest, Hungary British citizen "You can't have been here that long - you haven't got a pot belly." Hungarians BBC News, March 2002[13]
Edinburgh, Scotland Electronics company workers [Seeing a fuse box] "It looks as though it was put in by an Indian." Indians[14] BBC News, March 2002[15]
China The world [On Beijing] "Ghastly." The people of Beijing; The Chinese (again) BBC News, August 1999[16]
Cayman Islands Cayman Islander [On Beijing] "Ghastly." Cayman Islanders BBC News, March 2002[17]
UK (at the height of the 1981 recession) The world "Everybody was saying we must have more leisure. Now they are complaining they are unemployed." The unemployed; anyone made redundant BBC News, March 2002[18]
Duke of Edinburgh Award ceremony British student about to do voluntary work in Romania [On finding that the student wouldn't be working in an orphanage] "There's so many over there you feel they breed them just to put in orphanages."[19] Romanians; orphans The Scotsman, July 2006[20]
  • At the University of Salford, he told a 13-year-old aspiring astronaut: "You could do with losing a bit of weight."[21]
  • In 1997, the Duke of Edinburgh, participating in an already controversial British visit to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre (Amritsar Massacre) Monument, provoked outrage in India and in the UK with an offhand comment. Having observed a plaque claiming 2,000 casualties, Prince Philip observed, "That's not right. The number is less." [22]
  • During a Royal visit to a Tamil Hindu temple in London , he asked a Hindu priest if he was related to the terrorist Tamil Tigers.[23]
  • He once attributed a badly finished carpentry job to one having been done by an Indian. [24]
  • In 1988 he said that "In the event that I am reincarnated, I would like to return as a deadly virus, in order to contribute something to solve overpopulation." [25]
  • In 1996 he drew sharp criticism when he said a gun was no more dangerous than a cricket bat in the hands of a madman. The comment came in the wake of the massacre of 16 children and their teacher by a gun-toting psychopath in Dunblane, Scotland.[26][23]
  1. ↑ Principle group(s); others may also find the comment offensive.
  2. ↑ BBC News: Long line of princely gaffes'. 1st March 2002.
  3. ↑ BBC News: Long line of princely gaffes'. 1st March 2002.
  4. ↑ BBC News: Long line of princely gaffes'. 1st March 2002.
  5. ↑ BBC News: Long line of princely gaffes'. 1st March 2002.
  6. ↑ British television chef Gordon Ramsay said a similar thing in 2005; though he only remarked that young British women couldn't cook. See Daily Telegraph: 'Can't cook, won't cook', 22nd October 2005.
  7. ↑ BBC News: Long line of princely gaffes'. 1st March 2002.
  8. ↑ BBC News: Long line of princely gaffes'. 1st March 2002.
  9. ↑ BBC News: Prince Philip's gaffes'. 10th August 1999.
  10. ↑ BBC News: Deaf insulted by duke's remark'. 10th August 1999.
  11. ↑ The BBC reports that the addressee took no offence.
  12. ↑ BBC News: Prince Philip's spear 'gaffe''. 1st March 2002.
  13. ↑ BBC News: Long line of princely gaffes'. 1st March 2002.
  14. ↑ The BBC reported that the Duke was defended by Dr Shanfi Kauser, Secretary of the Islamic Centre in Glasgow: "He is a nice man and I don't think he has done anything out of malice. I believe he has not done anything wrong. On other occasions he has been very complimentary to us. We should not bring him into a dispute. I think he should be excused."
  15. ↑ BBC News: Royal apology for race remark'. 10th August 1999.
  16. ↑ BBC News: Prince Philip's gaffes'. 10th August 1999.
  17. ↑ BBC News: Long line of princely gaffes'. 1st March 2002.
  18. ↑ BBC News: Long line of princely gaffes'. 1st March 2002.
  19. ↑ Uncorroborated/
  20. ↑ The Scotsman: Duke under fire for Romanian orphans 'joke''. 8th July 2006.
  21. ↑ Prince tells boy: You're too fat for spaceship, Manchester Evening News, July 26, 2001.
  22. ↑ Deaf Insulted by Duke's Remark, BBC, May 27, 1999.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named gaffes
  24. ↑ http://www.rediff.com/us/2002/nov/13uk.htm
  25. ↑ Prince Philip, In His Own Words: We Need To 'Cull' The Surplus Population, Prison Planet, June 10, 2004.
  26. ↑ Deaf insulted by duke's remark, BBC, May 27, 1999.
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