In an exchange worthy of the late Prince Philip, Lady Susan Hussey single-handedly set back the progress of racial awareness in the Royal household by three decades.
At a charity event a the Palace on Tuesday the late Queen’s Lady in Waiting made a total prat of herself by repeatedly quizzing a black British born charity boss about where she was “really” from. In her first public engagement since 1978 Lady Hussey seemed oblivious to the notion that black people had been having children in the UK, and that these children would be British.
Her comments have been characterised as offensive, racist and unwelcoming.
Lady Hussey has since resigned her unpaid position and returned to 1978.
Hysterical types have been pontificating on whether this indicates institutional racism in the Royal Household. Realistically it just means that someone let a friend of the late Queen come along to an event to keep warm, an old friend who had lost the ability to keep up. We have all have elderly relatives who have not been attending their equality and diversity sessions. It does not signify that the whole family and the family business is racist.