"Do you still throw spears at each other?"
(on meeting Aborigines in Australia)
"If it has got four legs and it is not a chair, if it has got two wings and it flies but is not an aeroplane, and if it swims and it is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it."
(as spoken at a 1986 World Wildlife Fund meeting)
"How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to get them to pass test?"
(Asking a driving instructor in Oban, Scotland)
"Everybody was saying we must have more leisure. Now they are
complaining they are unemployed."
(comment made during a particularly bad recession in Britain in 1981)
"We don't come here [Canada] for our health. We can think of other ways of enjoying ourselves."
(on ambassadorial trip to Canada)
"If a cricketer, for instance, suddenly decided to go into a school and batter a lot of people to death with a cricket bat, which he could do very easily, I mean, are you going to ban cricket bats?"
(in response to to the 1996 Dunblane shootings. Insightful.)
"It looks as if it was put in by an Indian"
(upon noticing a ramshackle fusebox whilst taking a tour of a factory near Edinburgh)
"If you stay here much longer, you'll all be slitty-eyed"
(to some British students in China)
" Deaf? If you live near this, no wonder you are deaf "
(After being greeted by a steel band during a visit to a school for young deaf people. Charming.)
"Well, you'll never fly in it, you're too fat to be an astronaut."
(to a small child when inspecting the NOVA spacecraft in Salford)
Although these are terrible, there is more understanding to his views. He is a very old man, and of a very different generation, this is only made worse my the fact he is a Royal and is so even more old fashioned about things than others of his age (IMO). Yes, he shouldn't say the things he does, but in his day there wouldn't have been a problem. This is Harry's time, and he should know what you can and can't do.munkle said:Some choice quotes from Prince Philip:
Lord Blackadder said:I'm a huge WWII buff, but even in historical circles the Swastika is generally considered to be an item that should not be visible outside an educational context. In fact, even the guys that do WWII re-enactments are very careful about removing such insignia when they are not actually "on the field".
the Swastika was and is the standard of the Nazis and their ideological descendants, and has come to represent evil and hate to our society. It is extremely offensive, and I can hardly over-emphasize that.
So, Harry's costume was a dumb idea, and hopefully nothing more than that. Hopefully this scandal doesn't cause too much permanent damage to his public image
munkle said:Some choice quotes from Prince Philip:
Seems so obvious where Harry gets it from now, they probably came up with the idea together.
Lord Blackadder said:THAT made me laugh.![]()
Could somebody fill this Yank in on what general public opinion of the Princes in the UK is nowadays? My knowlege on the current state of the monarchy is shaky.
VincentVega said:Prince Phillip. Senile, doddering old fool. See posts above. Insensitive, out of touch, arrogant, rude, obnoxious. Racist bigot.
Prince Charles. Out-of-touch (he likes hunting with hounds (foxes, deer and the like), this is set to be banned shortly, most people disapprove of the practice). Made stupid comments about how wrong it was for common folk to want to make something out of their lives (getting ideas above their station). Talks to plants. Has hideous taste in women (Camilla Parker-Bowles). There have been newspaper articles in the past about how he should renounce his claim to the throne and pass it straight to William, his eldest son. Not terribly intelligent. Does some good work (Prince's Trust and so on), but he should stay out of politics and try and act more regal.
Prince William. I'd say he's probably fairly popular. He doesn't do much, really, least of all anything that's offensive. He's thought of as a bit of a heart throb (as a heterosexual male, I don't see it myself, but anyway). He reminds me a lot of his late mum, Princess Diana.
Prince Harry = the English version of Paris Hilton. Gets in fights with photographers. Insensitive, dresses up with Nazi regalia. Likes his alcohol. He strikes me as being quite dumb. His stock is very, very, very low at present. To me, he is the Royal Family in microcosm: past their sell by date, in need of retirement (or a mercy killing). He would probably have turned out much better if his mum was still alive. (His mum was probably the most popular Royal of them all.)
Prince Andrew. Was in the Navy, I think. Not sure what he does nowadays. He likes his taxpayer-funded trips abroad. If he vanished off the face of the earth, no-one would miss him (possibly his kids might, but that's two people out of around 9 billion or so).
Prince Edward. Utterly hopeless. Probably the least beloved of the Queen's children (the others (that I can remember) being Charles, Andrew and Anne). Ran a TV production company with no success at all. Doesn't do anything worthwhile, a waste of space.
Princess Anne, the Princess Royal. I'd say she has a pretty good reputation (relatively speaking). She does a fair bit for charity. She's a bit horsey, a trait shared by her daughter, Zara Phillips.
Princess Margaret (deceased), sister of Queen Elizabeth II. Battle axe. Admired by few, missed by even fewer. Liked her alcohol. Held dubious views (a product of her time?). Newspaper articles in the wake of her death were not terribly complementary (at least the ones I read).
There are lots of other Royals as well, but no-one really cares about them. They are hardly worth writing about. So I won't.
snkTab said:how is a white shirt with a armband a uniform.
iGAV said:He doesn't have to be a part of it though if he doesn't like it, he could quite easily abdicate...
VincentVega said:Princess Anne, the Princess Royal. I'd say she has a pretty good reputation (relatively speaking). She does a fair bit for charity. She's a bit horsey, a trait shared by her daughter, Zara Phillips.
Lord Blackadder said:aloofman:
By the same token, one should be careful to distinguish between carelessness/thoughtlessness (i.e. the topic of this thread) and malicious intent (racism/neo-Nazism). One is bad, but the other is FAR worse.
VincentVega said:Prince Harry = the English version of Paris Hilton.
virividox said:well he does have 'german lineage'
virividox said:yes but normal ppl dont have the press on their backs 24/7 and as a future leader of the UK, at the very least a public figure he should use better judgment. sure you can argue that the nazis are so WWII and to get over it because he didnt mean anything and it was harmless fun blah blah blah, but for some ppl this remains a senstive issue, and he as a responsible public figure shouldnt be insentive to those people
wdlove said:Prince Harry is young and inexperience, he's done a very stupid thing. Now that he has apologized, move on.
The symbol on the armband, they style of the clothing, and the position of the armband make it a uniform.snkTab said:how is a white shirt with a armband a uniform.
wdlove said:When a person apologizes we should be able to forgive. Being that he isn't an adult, he deserves a break. Like any other teenager it is tough to monitor them 24/7.
blackfox said:Rather off-topic( since most of my sentiments on the matter-at-hand have been mentioned), but I am again reminded of the brilliance of whomever designed the German/Nazi-era uniforms.
Without a doubt, they are the most attractive-looking uniforms ever worn by a country's military forces. Even the swastika was a stroke of design/marketing genius.
Sadly, this is all ruined by association with what the Nazis represented and perpetrated against their fellow humanity.
It is curious how sensitive we in the West are to the Nazis and Hitler, in the context of them/him being behind at least Stalin and Mao in number of people killed/crimes against humanity, and possibly behind Amin and Pol Pot as well. I suppose it is a reminder that the West is not immune from such desptic tendencies.
Sorry to ramble, just thinking out loud...
wdlove said:When a person apologizes we should be able to forgive.
Mr. Anderson said:Ha! But his celebrity status will protect him from that, I'm sure....![]()
Apology aside, I'd love to hear from him *how* he went about getting a Nazi uniform and deciding to wear it in the first place.
D
VincentVega said:There are lots of other Royals as well, but no-one really cares about them. They are hardly worth writing about. So I won't.
VincentVega said:As for Harry, I'd personally line him, blindfolded, up against the wall and show no sympathy at all. He's a complete idiot. Given that it's coming up to the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, it's particularly insensitive timing. Harry seems to have inherited his father's lack of intelligence instead of his comedy ears.
Healthy, happy Brits we all are!20-20 HINDSIGHT
It just reaffirms that he is as stupid as everyone else our age.
Marguerite Metz, age 20, textile design student, from Cambridge