London - Sometimes he just cannot help saying what he thinks. So the Duke of Edinburgh took one look at a group of women at a community centre on Thursday and asked them: “Who do you sponge off?”
His candid question came during a tour of one of London’s most deprived boroughs, Dagenham, with the Queen.
The women had waited to greet the 94-year-old at the Chadwell Heath Community Centre, where volunteers are given the chance to gain employment skills.
It would not be the first time Prince Philip had uttered something regrettable, but on this occasion no offence was taken.
In fact, one of the women answered his teasing question by saying they “sponged” off their husbands.
Philip’s comment was taken in good humour by Nusrat Zamir, 35, a trustee of the centre, who said: “The Duke said to us, ‘Who do you sponge off?’ We’re all married so it’s our husbands. He was just teasing and it’s similar to what I call my husband - the wallet.”
Later a royal aide claimed the remark was a pun on the fact Mrs Zamir had presented the Queen with a large iced sponge cake.
The spokesman said: “There’s a context here, they were talking about a sponge cake.
“No offence was intended or taken. The whole visit took place in a wonderful atmosphere.”
Mrs Zamir said Philip also asked her group of women, “Do you meet to have a gossip?”
But she took the comment in good cheer, adding: ‘It’s a familiar question, a lot of people say what the Duke said but we do a lot of work. When we organised a fair in March that took a lot of organising and time.”
As well as joking with the women, the Duke of Edinburgh also poked fun at resident Martin Shaw. He said: “I told Philip I’m a professional fundraiser and he said, ‘Do you have any friends left?’ I said “Not many”.
The Duke’s propensity for gaffes is well documented. In 1986, he joked that British students in China might become “slitty-eyed”, then in 2002 he asked some Aborigines if they “still chuck spears at each other”. But supporters say that far from being accident-prone, the Duke is a “sophisticated satirist” who knows precisely what he is doing and saying.
Thursday’s remark came less than a week after he was caught on camera shouting, “Just take the f****** picture” during a photocall for the Battle of Britain anniversary. He seemed to lose patience with how long it was taking for the photographs to be carried out at an RAF Club in Piccadilly.
The Queen and Duke were in Dagenham to mark the 50th anniversary of the borough.
A few of his famous gaffes
“You look like you’re ready for bed!” To the Nigerian president, who was in traditional robes
“We don’t come here for our health. We can think of other ways of enjoying ourselves.” On a trip to Canada in 1976
“You managed not to get eaten then?” To a British student in Papua New Guinea in 1998
“I would like to go to Russia very much although the bastards murdered half my family.” In 1967, when asked if he’d like to visit the Soviet Union
“Aren’t most of you descended from pirates?” To residents of the Cayman Islands, 1994
“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 the Cantonese will eat it.” To a meeting of the World Wildlife Fund in 1986
Daily Mail