Prince Phillip's ten greatest gaffes

Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh - offensive? Photo / Getty Images

Prince Phillip's latest gaffes - effing and jeffing at a photographer and asking a group of community workers "who do you sponge off?" - are just the latest in a long list of controversial moments for the Queen's husband.

Here is a selection of some of the most ill-advised comments to have left his mouth over the years:

• In the aftermath of the Dunblane school massacre in 1996, where 18 people were killed, Prince Phillip questioned the need for a firearms ban: "If a cricketer, for instance, suddenly decided to go into a school and batter a lot of people to death with a cricket bat, which he could do very easily, I mean, are you going to ban cricket bats?"

Prince Phillip on a visit to New Zealand in 1970. Photo / NZH Archive

• "You look like you're ready for bed!" he once cringe-inducingly commented to the President of Nigeria, who was dressed in traditional robes.

• One of the Duke of Edinburgh's early clangers: "British women can't cook," 1966.

• "Do you still throw spears at each other?" he tactfully asked a group of Aboriginal performers in Australia in 2002.

• "It is very difficult to see how it is possible to become immensely valuable by singing what I think are the most hideous songs," Prince Phillip said about Tom Jones, of all people, in 1969. Later, on how difficult it is to get rich in Britain: "What about Tom Jones? He's made a million and he's a bloody awful singer."

• In 1995 he asked a Scottish driving instructor in Oban: "How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to pass the test?"

• On a tour of a Scottish factory in 2002 he slammed a shoddy fuse box by saying it "looked as though it was put in by an Indian."

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh at a garden party at the British Embassy in Berlin. Photo / Getty Images

• An £18 million British embassy in Berlin? "It's a vast waste of space," he told guests at the opening in 2000.

• Any thoughts on wind turbines? "Absolutely useless" and "an absolute disgrace" apparently.

• In 2009 Prince Phillip told a young fashion designer visiting Buckingham Palace: "You didn't design your beard too well, did you? You really must try better with your beard." Okay... This one is kind of funny.

- nzherald.co.nz