What do you think of this comment by Prince Philip?

All absolutely true. He may not say things in the most diplomatic way but HRH The Duke of Edinburgh is usually right. It's visible all over the English countryside - village shops are closing down because of competition from shopping malls, as Americans call them. It's causing much hardship to pensioners who can't drive and used to be able to rely on local buses to get about. The bus services are dying off because of increased car ownership (to get to the malls!) and local post offices are closing, so if they don't want to have a bank account, in some places it's a whole day expedition just to collect their weekly state pension. Some pensioners have never had a bank account and can't get used to their pension being paid directly into one now. There are regular petitions sent to Parliament about this.

And in some places village houses are being bought up as weekend retreats by rich people so the villages are much more dead during the week.

The question is, though, how important is it that country villages keep going in the way they have for centuries? Prince Philip thinks it is, but the question then is, why? Now that's one that's hard to answer. Changes in society look like it's going to happen even more whether anyone likes it or not, and there's little anyone can do. And well, HRH IS 86 - he's very much a traditionalist.

Well, he's right that most villages nowadays are full of commuters rather than local people involved in farming etc, but the trouble is that there aren't enough jobs nowadays in the country for local people and a lot have moved away. Farming no longer employs large numbers of people like it used to.

I agree with him though that it is pretty silly that a bottle of water costs more than a bottle of milk.

Prince Philip often puts his foot in his mouth.

There was an incident years ago when he attended a concert for the benefit of deaf people and he said,"No wonder their deaf listening to this".

Something like.

I can't help but like him though.

I don't agree with him. I think that communities are evolving and moving on. With current economical climate going on, I don't think it is worth while having a go at villages, because some people can't afford to run or shop in village shops. However, I usually quite like Prince Philip, I think he is quite a frank and outspoken individual.

Quite right too!

In my day the only people who owned second homes were Royalty and members of the peerage and nobility, and that is the way it should be! The only people who owned supermarkets were Messrs Sainsbury and Messrs Fortnum and Mason.

I have no time for the nouveau riche and parvenus!

Probably not as Phil is more of a Rod McKuen fan.

I usually find myself agreeing with Prince Phillip about many things...and, apparently, so does his wife.....who finds it as convenient to blame her spouse for unpopular things as FDR did.

Incoherent ramblings.

Britain is larger than it was 400-500 years ago? Alert the media!

Has life changed since WW2? Who would have thought it!

He says what he thinks. What is wrong with that? Some people don't like to hear the truth. He may put his foot in his mouth sometimes,who doesn't?

He ignores the number of homes he owns. I don't pay too much attention to the ideas of a man who never worked for a living.