Why the Prince of put-downs is one of a kind

IT IS not surprising to find Prince Philip in the news again. He has often made the headlines, almost always for the wrong reasons.

The Duke of Edinburgh is an equal-opportunities gaffmaker, not discriminating between countries and social strata when it comes to saying offensive or embarrassing things. In his time he has described the Chinese as " slitty-eyed", and the Hungarians as " pot-bellied". After the Dunblane massacre he declared a member of a shooting club was no more potentially dangerous than a cricketer, and also wondered why the unemployed cannot make up their mind whether they want more leisure time or not.

The Duke's reported opposition to the proposed reform of the Royals cannot however be dismissed as yet another silly intervention. By setting his face against the public mood for reform following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, Philip will be courting further unpopularity. The Government is determined to see the changes through, and it would be tempting and easy for the spin doctors to portray the Duke as an archaic symbol of an ancient regime.

But that would be too simplistic. According to senior sources, Prince Philip's misgivings about the pace and scale of change is shared by other senior, older members of the family, most notably the Queen Mother. The Queen, who is said to be charting a delicate course on the affair, can hardly ignore these views, and may well share the reservations herself.

It would also be simplistic to dismiss the Duke as a life-long reactionary. In the past he had in fact supported reforms of the Royals. But these reforms, he is now said to feel, proved to be misguided and helped to strip away the mystique of the monarchy.

Drastic further moves down this avenue, he is said to believe, will end in its demise.

For such a staunch defender of the status quo, Philip is, in fact, something of an outsider. His father, Prince Andrew of Greece was arrested for treason in l921 the year Philip was born. But at George V's behest the Government intervened, and a Royal Navy gunboat whisked the family from Corfu.

The family, broke, moved to Paris, where they lived in a borrowed house. A relative paid Philip's school fees, but when he was just 10 his parents split up. His father moved to Monte Carlo for the gambling and his mother became a nun.

His old friend and private secretary, Michael Parker, said: " When he needed a father, there just wasn't anybody there".

After Brittania Naval College in Dartmouth during the war, as a young officer, he sailed around the world and was involved in the battle of Cape Matapan, which saw the virtual destruction of the Italian Navy. Years later he was to tell the writer Fiametto Rocco "I'd much rather have stayed in the Navy, frankly".

But it was not to be, instead Philip ended up as the husband of the future Queen and began his structured life ruled by pomp and protocol. He did however, manage to slip away occasionally from public gaze. There were rumours he had affairs with actress Pat Kirkwood and cabaret star Helene Cordet, but no one had ever offered any conclusive proof.

Prince Philip has now been at the Queen's side for almost twice as long as Prince Albert was with Victoria. It is unlikely he will have a memorial named after him.

But in one place in the world he will always remain sacred. A signed photograph of him is apparently a venerated object among the Lounhanan tribe in the Solomon Islands.