Plan B Forum

At 90 years young, Prince Philip can get away with just about anything.

His famous sense of sometimes inappropriate humour was on display Thursday as he cheerfully greeted the many well wishers in the London borough of Redbridge who came out to see the Duke of Edinburgh's better half, Queen Elizabeth as she continued her Diamond Jubilee mini-tours.

Philip , ever the dutiful escot, followed the Queen through her walkabout, chatting with people along the way.

When he came up David Miller, 60, a disabled man who was sitting on his four-wheeled mobility scooter.

"How many people have you knocked over this morning on that thing?" Prince Philip asked.

Without hesitation, everyone who heard the remark burst into laughter.

“I told him no, your Royal Highness, I had not knocked anyone down," said Miller, who is a trustee of the Valentines Mansion where the royals were viewing an art show.

“That is just typical from the Duke," Miller said later. "He is renowned for his humour but no offence was taken, it was all in good humour."

Philip has long had a mischievious sense of humour that has gotten him in hot water. A few of his ill-timed comments over the years:

-- In 2002, he asked an Aboriginal leader in Queensland: "Do you still throw spears at each other?"


-- In 1994, he remarked to a Cayman Island resident: "Aren’t most of you descended from pirates?"

-- And this, to a Scottish driving instructor: "How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to pass the test?"

-- Canada was not immune from his blunt observations. In 1976 on a visit here, he remarked: "We don’t come here for our health. We can think of other ways of enjoying ourselves."

Scooter wrote:
When he came up David Miller, 60, a disabled man who was sitting on his four-wheeled mobility scooter.

"How many people have you knocked over this morning on that thing?" Prince Philip asked.

Without hesitation, everyone who heard the remark burst into laughter.

“I told him no, your Royal Highness, I had not knocked anyone down," said Miller, who is a trustee of the Valentines Mansion where the royals were viewing an art show.

Scooter wrote:He's not malicious by any means, but really, if someone did take offense, it's not as if they're going to say so to the husband of the Queen.

Could you imagine if a politician had said that Scots were all drunkards? The firestorm would never have died down.

Scooter wrote:He's not malicious by any means, but really, if someone did take offense, it's not as if they're going to say so to the husband of the Queen.

Could you imagine if a politician had said that Scots were all drunkards? The firestorm would never have died down.