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April 9, 2021 - 5:32pm
There are few families in Britain closer to the royal family than the family of wartime leader Sir Winston Churchill. His grandson, Sir Nicholas Soames, knew Prince Philip very well over a 60-year period and shared his thoughts on his passing in a special edition of LockdownTV.
“It’s a strange day, a day of reflection, and I hope people get him right,” he told me. “The press, with that attention span for which they are famous, always talks about his ‘gaffes’ — his gaffes were that what you saw was what you got. He was an absolutely ram rod straight former naval officer, who didn’t have much time for sycophancy or bloody fools or anyone else, and spoke as he found. But he was essentially a man of great humour, he had tremendous wit and charm … and he held very strong views. This is not a mere figure.”
Sir Nicholas reflected on the values of the generation that the Duke of Edinburgh belonged to:
I’ll tell you what I think we have lost, that his generation had — we’ve lost any sense of proportion about what goes on. Everything is bulled up into an enormous drama, but if you’ve lived in that generation you’ve lived through an era of profound upheaval. And you learned to distinguish between what was important and what wasn’t important. I think we’ve lost that now.
Sir Nicholas stressed that, as evidenced by Prince Philip’s founding of St George’s House centre for spiritual reflection at the chapel at Windsor Castle, “he was a thinker, and he was interested in the spiritual side of life.”
But the reputation for straight talking was well-earned:
Sir Nicholas shared that Prince Philip would not have wanted a state funeral, even if Covid had not prevented one:
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SubscribePrince Philip’s death is like a spot light showing the difference between the old generation and the new. The new does not stand up well to the scrutiny.
The Stiff Upper Lip vs the Me Generation.
But the old doesn’t do well either. His ‘values’ seem to include racial and gender prejudice, as well as class prejudice and a disregard for all but his own class. No great loss there, then.
Why class PP as “old generation” He would have been who he was in any generation – completely straight, inclined to rudeness and not very considerate of others’ feelings if he thought they were below par in some way, .totally loyal, not a fool in any way and probably great fun as well.
what rubbish Andrew. Look at the D of E awards all he did for so many good causes tirelessly ,you are clearly bigoted from the outset
Composure and humour are the core English values the woke left fears and hates the most.
There is a marvellous quote on unHerd ’emotional incontinence’, and the woke are full of it.
https://unherd.com/2021/04/philip-prince-of-nowhere/
Katharine Eyre
The values that Philip (and the Queen of course) represent (duty, discipline, loyalty, stoicism) now seem far more admirable and like something we should be striving towards – not emotional incontinence and faux victimhood.
Goodness, I’m being quoted now?!?
and Tolerance ! The British are very tolerant of mistakes and faults. Courage is the quality they admire, above all others.
Objectivity, logic, humor, grace under pressure — these seem to be to the Woke Folk as garlic is to vampires.
M “woke” “friends” (who call themselves socialists and think they are the milk of human kindness) are gnashing and frothing, accusing poor old Prince Philip of racism and worse – these people who have never done anything useful in their entire lives. It makes me want to weep. Why are people so vile?
“I’ll tell you what I think we have lost, that his generation had — we’ve lost any sense of proportion about what goes on. Everything is bulled up into an enormous drama, but if you’ve lived in that generation you’ve lived through an era of profound upheaval. And you learned to distinguish between what was important and what wasn’t important. I think we’ve lost that now.”
Yes, I think this is correct. The later generations have lost that ability – and perhaps it is the price for having lived in the luxury of peace in a wealthy country. This attitude can be regained though – even without some kind of external upheaval. Every individual can decide for him-/herself to think and act differently and to which ideals they aspire.
like lots of my late years my parents were bombed, suffered shortages personal loss and privation in the war, and biffed on whereas so many have struggled with lockdown leaving them suffering from PTSD! come on!
we are simply becoming weaker as a race
Thank you for sharing with readers your ‘own truth’. If Meghan can have one, so can the rest of us.
The driver in the difference is to a great extent ‘social media’ or anti-social media as I prefer to call it. a rabble can be raised in minutes and it is a source of much evil, suicide bullying etc.
are we better with or without it?
it needs far stricter controls very difficult in a free society.
Debate!