Some people's desperation to defame the monarchy knows no bounds:
Prince Philip reportedly made one of his notorious gaffes by joking with a British-Indian business leader about his name. During a reception at Buckingham Palace for 400 influential British Indians, Prince Philip, pictured, greeted Atul Patel by glancing at his name tag and saying, "There's a lot of your family in tonight."
My guess is that the Duke had probably greeted several Patels by that point in the evening, thus the joke. How on earth is that even remotely racist? Patel is an extremely common Indians surname. It's a small talk joke. He could easily have made the same one about people named Smith. The gentleman in question was not offended. Being modern Britain others are offended on his behalf. We used to call these people busybodies. Naturally, the usual suspects are trying to get as much mileage out of this as possible.
But Republic, a group campaigning to abolish the monarchy, said it was "deeply embarrassing." "Making a joke about people called Patel is deeply embarrassing.... At best it's a comment that shows he's out of touch and out of date," said its spokesman, Graham Smith.
Sorry. Not buying it. Embarrassing it is not. What is embarrassing is the existence, in Britain, of a group that makes political hay out of small talk. It's not the sort of thing gentlemen and ladies do, distorting chat into character assassination. In the unlikely event that Graham Smith is interested in how actual ladies and gentlemen conduct themselves, we ask that Mr Smith pay attention to the life and manners of Her Majesty and her consort. At times I wonder what the Duke makes of all this. A sailor from the days when so much of the world was still pink. Decency and sense, England hath need of thee.
It certainly is interesting that candid wit and humour is so easily led to offend, more often by those not its target than not. Frankly, I would cheer if the Duke gave the Republicans who claim such embarrassment the one-fingered salute (hey, I'm Australian, and I like a good, er, stick in the mud).
ReplyDeleteMust the question be asked - can't you people take a joke (and ironically, Mr Patel, as you claim, seems to have taken it in good humour, as I would about being called a local if I were at a party in Wells).
From what I've seen of and heard about republicans here in Canada, they are a notoriously humourless lot. This was once pointed out to me by the former Chairman of the Monarchist League, who said that in televised debates he'd had with Tom Freda - the leader of Republic's Canadian cohort, Citizens for a Canadian Republic - his best weapon was to maintain good humour and shoot a witty joke or two in his opponent's direction. Needless to say, Freda would generally respond with a deeper scoul than he'd been previously maintaining.
ReplyDeleteRepublicans tend to be angry - perhaps because of imported ethnic hatred, an inferiority complex, who knows? Possibly because they're desperate for anyone to listen to them and permit them to vent their bitterness; hence, they'll latch onto innocuous little things like the Prince's joke or a British diplomat's comments and try to turn them into some earth-shattering event in the hopes that it will rile the masses to revolution. Sad.
Very sad, indeed.
ReplyDeleteGraham Smith has commented at this blog in the past, so I encourage him to explain himself here and to remove his foot from his republican mouth.
Republicans tend to be intoleristas...who tend to be bitter and angry.
ReplyDeleteThey need a good dose of Wodehouse or Jerome.
But, of course, their intolerance is all in the name of tolerance!
ReplyDeleteYou are quite right, James. "Tolerance" is banner under which all Intoleristas live and have their being.
ReplyDeleteDeary me, if they think they can bring down the House of Windsor with a concocted slur, the monarchy must be doing something right. Remind me to cry havoc next time I hear a republican mention "Phil the Greek" or the Queen being "German", will you? After all, comments such as those are at best out of date and out of touch with the sentiments of the British people. The worst offender in that respect was Peter Tatchell, who, despite his much-vaunted campaigning for respect for this, that and the other, made a far more appalling comment on his now-departed internet TV talk show "Talking with Tatchell" that though the Second World War ended over 60 years ago, "the Germans are still on the throne".
ReplyDeleteRemind me, too, to remark at some point on the common nature of the surname Smith: if any contributors to The Monarchist are going to the Republic spring conference, please do on my behalf inform Mr Smith that there are probably a lot of his family at the conference, will you?
Post script: highly off-topic I know, but in case you have not seen it there is a nifty article in the London Daily Telegraph of 30/10 about the UK's links with the Commonwealth in re the Sir Keith Park memorial. Sadly it does not go so far as to mention in elaborate terms the involvement of the monarchy (if I remember correctly; if I do not I apologise to its author) but it is a start.
ACMW
I agree, this was not racist. If anything, it was a recognition of the success and influence of the Patel/Gujrati community in the UK.
ReplyDeleteWhat was truly racist was the comment the Duke of Ed gave when inspecting a poorly installed light bulb "Looks like it was put in by an Indian". Or the many other racist remarks over the years. Possibly humourous, I admit, but racist.