From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 25 April

It is unforgiveable when the basic facts of a topic are incorrect; occasionally, the premise for the article is a total nonsense.

WHETHER the literary offence is the consequence of sheer ignorance, or downright laziness, is impossible to know, but of one thing we can be sure: it should not happen.

The death of His Royal Highness, The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, has engendered a slew of articles and obituaries. It is estimated some 500 pages of the British newspapers has been devoted to his passing, which is as it should be. Setting aside the so-called gaffes, and which some, who were present at the time, argued they lost something in the translation, he made an enormous contribution to Great Britain, the Commonwealth, and to the world.

As president of the World Wildlife Fund, Prince Philip said, “If nature doesn’t survive, neither will man.” His commitment to conservation will be his legacy, together with the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. Founded in 1956, it has served as a toolkit for three-quarters of a million young men and women of the Commonwealth, and 144 nations.

One print story asked, unbelievably, why Prince Philip was not given the title of King Consort when Elizabeth became Queen in 1952. The story was almost too silly to read and revealed an alarming ignorance of the system of government under which we live.

The answer is simple: Elizabeth is Queen Regnant – she rules in her own right. She inherited the crown and did not take her take her title from her husband; furthermore, Philip is not the line of succession; however, by decree, he takes immediate precedence after The Queen.

Philip was born a Prince of Greece and Denmark. Prior to his engagement to The Princess Elizabeth he renounced his title and citizenship; became a British subject and converted to Anglicanism. He took the anglicised name of his grandfather, the 1st Marquess of Milford Haven. He was known as Lt Philip Mountbatten RN. The day before his marriage, King George VI created him Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich.

In 1957 an anomaly was discovered. The Queen issued Letters Patent on 22 February giving the Duke the style and titular dignity of a Prince of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (omitting the wording: Her other Realms and Territories). According to the London Gazette announcement, he should, henceforth, be known as His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, with the capitalised definite article normally restricted to the children of monarchs.

Technically, Philip was not, by oversight, a royal prince at the time of the 1954 Australian tour.

Curiously, since 1066 and the Norman Invasion, there have been fewer queens down through the centuries. Mary I married Philip of Spain, a king in his own right.    Elizabeth I never married. William III and Mary II reigned jointly – she was Queen Regnant. Queen Anne married George, Prince of Denmark and Norway, Duke of Cumberland. Queen Victoria married her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg – He took the title of Prince Consort.

In the United Kingdom, women, by custom and tradition, take their titles from their husbands. It has been suggested The Duchess of Cornwall will be known as The Princess Consort when Charles becomes king. Technically, she will be queen, in the same way she is now The Princess of Wales but chooses, out of respect for the late Diana, Princess of Wales, not to use the title.

To compound the felony, a local television program reported that Philip was born in Athens (he was born on a kitchen table in Corfu and made his escape being carried in an orange crate); and he and The Queen have three children (they have four).

I am the antithesis of a Trump supporter, but he was right about fake news! Too bloody lazy to check the facts!

Roland can be heard with Brett Macdonald each Monday at 10.45am on 3BA and contacted via [email protected].