Posted on 01/12/2005 5:54:55 PM PST by wagglebee
Prince Harry has apologised after being pictured on the front page of The Sun in a Nazi uniform which he wore to a fancy dress party.
The newspaper showed the Prince, with a cigarette and drink in hand, wearing a swastika armband.
The 20-year-old said: "I am very sorry if I caused any offence or embarrassment to anyone."
In a statement released by Buckingham Palace, he added: "It was a poor choice of costume and I apologise."
On Harry's shirt collar was the badge of Wehrmacht - the German defence force.
The Prince was at a fancy dress party in West Littleton, Wiltshire last Saturday for the 22nd birthday party of his friend Harry Meade.
The 250-guest party had a native and colonial theme.
Prince William was reportedly present dressed in lion and leopard skin print top and tight black leggings.
Doug Henderson, Labour MP for Newcastle upon Tyne North and a former armed forces minister, said Prince Harry should not now be allowed to become a British Army officer.
"After the revelations this evening I don't think this young man is suitable for Sandhurst," he said.
The Sun said Harry's outfit of beige shirt and trousers and Nazi insignia which was the "talk of party guests".
However, Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, a spokesman for the Reform Synagogues of Great Britain, said the incident should not be blown out of proportion
"The fact that the palace has issued an apology indicates that this was a mistake by the Prince," he said
"But having being given, the apology should now be accepted."
A spokesman for the Board Of Deputies Of British Jews said: "The board is pleased that he's apologised for the incident.
"It was clearly in bad taste, especially in the run up to holocaust memorial day on the 27th of this month, which the Royal Family will be taking a leading role in commemorating."
It is the latest in a long catalogue of unsavoury incidents involving the Prince. Last year he was pictured attacking a photographer outside a nightclub. There were also accusations that he cheated in exams to get into Sandhurst.
Revelations about Harry's use of soft drugs, alcohol and cigarettes have also hit the headlines.
History begins the day you are born unless someone takes the time and trouble to bring you up to speed. The social parasites that are the British Monarchy evidently have not bothered to inform the heir apparent. Learn from history or repeat its mistakes.
oooops!
Prince Harry is not the heir apparent (William is), so it would seem that he has developed the mindset that since he will have basically no responsibilities in life that he can just go ahead and be a spoiled uncaring prick.
Hey - Wait a minute! That is so ... harsh. Especially since they're family!
That is why WWI and WWII where called family feuds.
To be fair, the kid's been through a lot in his relatively short life. He held up amazingly well through his mother's funeral procession, with a thousand TV cameras trained on him, displaying a degree of self-control that no child his age should ever have to display. His recent behavior has been less than adminrable, but it's probably just a phase that he needs to go through.
True. On the other hand, if he were wearing a Mao or Stalinist outift, he'd've been the hit of the party.
People should be outraged at Prince Harry, but it speaks all the more how outrageous the whole Che Chic movement is.
On second thought, Nazis wouldn't be welcome in Hanover these days. Send him to France. He can hang out with LePen.
My bad. Chuck isn't his daddy, is he?
Britain needs the royal family like a hole in the head.
Considering how many bastards Edward VII (the "Caresser") left behind most of us here are probably related to them, too.
If Barbara and Jenna wore KKK outfits to a party and their pictures appeared in the paper, they would be ripped by the media and the country, and rightly so.
This is inexcusable. Thank God the Queen Mother never saw this.
Hey, if you're going to nag for the posting police, at least get it right.
There is no rule against two different articles on the same topic. This one is from sky.com and is not identical to the one you're referencing from bbc.com.
Not that Prince Harry's doings should require even one post in the first place...
One of my kids got PO'd at me when I said he could not pierce his tongue, and painted a swastika on the wall of his bedroom. (He was 14 at the time).
I grounded him to his bedroom with a toothbrush, a can of cleaner, and a copy of "Schindler's List", and I told him he could not go anywhere but back and forth to school until the wall was clean and the book was read, and a satisfactory oral report was given to me on why a kid with a Jewish grandfather should know better.
We don't take kindly to little Nazis "going through a phase" in our house. (But then I am known as the Mum who nearly knocked Jacques Villeneuve off his paddock bike for cussing at me ... )
I'm not condoning his behavior. Just suggesting that he shouldn't be compared to those who haven't walked in his shoes through a psychologically bizarre childhood, which included having to parade for the world media through the unexpected funeral of his tabloid-star mother when he was still in elementary school. He's obviously got some head problems, and he needs to fix them, but he didn't develop them without a lot of outside help. The British rabbis have got it right -- accept his apology and let him move on (hopefully in a better direction).
As to 'Arry- silly begger. I will 'ave to get out me old hammer and sickle flag and sing the Internationale once more. Should be good for a free beer or two. LOL.
I am so glad I don't live in the UK. I love to visit there and have only met wonderful people. However, if I did live there I would not be a royalist.
Somehow, I thinks, no one bothered to tell him the difference between good attention and bad attention..
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