The no-nonsense duke might have hated ‘All This’, but that hasn’t stopped an entire nation from pontificating about him
Day five of the period of national mourning for Prince Philip, and the consensus is that “of course, he would have absolutely hated All This!” This judgment is generally made as someone trowels on a bit more of This. Particular pride is taken by those who are producing the sort of anecdote to which the late Duke of Edinburgh would surely have remarked “get on with it” or “is there much more of this?” One MP’s tribute began: “You mentioned in your opening remarks the duke’s interest in ties.” Prince Philip’s tailor offered a detailed account of how his waist measurement had only expanded around three inches over several decades.
But ordinary things such as barbecuing are held to become absolutely extraordinary when royals do them. In his wonderful Princess Margaret book, Craig Brown quotes one royal biographer typical of their genre. “The Queen and Prince Philip drove themselves to the polo ground. Philip drove a station wagon, the Queen her favourite Rover. Sometimes, instead of changing into polo gear at the castle, Prince Philip was seen changing, quite uncomfortably, in his automobile, sitting sideways, pulling his breeches on. “Then” – Then?! Then what? This had better be fricking incredible. “Then he would stand up and fasten the belt … ” We’ll leave it there for space reasons. The point is: can you imagine this passage of almost mesmeric dullness appearing in a biography of anyone else famous on the entire planet, except for a member of the royal family?
