LONDON: (TIP) Prince Philip, the gaffe-pronehusband of Queen Elizabeth II, has hit the headlinesonce again for his “jovial” remarks, this time inreference to Filipino nurses.The 91-year-old Prince told a nurse from thePhilippines that her country must be “half empty”because so many Filipinos have come to the UK to work.The Duke of Edinburgh made the comment during avisit to the Luton and Dunstable Hospital inBedfordshire to unveil a 5.5-million cardiac centreearlier this week.

His mood on the day was described as”jovial”, as the royal referred to himself as the “world’smost experienced curtain puller”.A hospital spokesperson did not comment on theDuke’s conversation with the nurse during his “hugelymotivational” visit. “Staff greatly enjoyed theopportunity to meet the Duke of Edinburgh, and weregard all personal conversations he had with our staffand guests as private…”Around 87,000 of the 660,000 nurses working in theUK’s National Health Service are mainly from thePhilippines, India, Australia and South Africa.Buckingham Palace refused to comment on a ‘privateconversation’.