Prince’s Gaffe

“Prince Philip has never been shy about giving his opinions on a large range of subjects – often with cringe-worthy results. But the gaffe-prone Prince has put his foot in it again by joking about the name Patel,” writes the Daily Mail. “It happened at a 400-strong Buckingham Palace reception for British Indians. As guests lined up to meet him and the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, 88, looked at the name badge of businessman Atul Patel and said ‘There’s a lot of your family in tonight.’ A spokesman for Mr Patel, who heads housing agency the LHA-Asra group, confirmed the conversation took place, but said the 47-year-old executive took it as a joke. The spokesman added: ‘Absolutely no offence was taken at all by Atul. It was taken in a very light-hearted way.’ ”