PRINCE HARRY has been widely criticised following the revelation of a three-year-old video diary in which he referred to a Sandhurst army colleague as "our little Paki friend . . . Ahmed."
Clarence House issued a profuse apology ahead of yesterday's News of the Worldstory, insisting that the prince "fully understands how offensive this term can be and is extremely sorry for any offence his words might have caused".
The statement added that on this occasion three years ago, however, "Prince Harry used the term without any malice and as a nickname about a highly popular member of his platoon."
The video was shot at an airport departure lounge while the prince was still an officer cadet at the Sandhurst military academy, and just a year after he was forced to apologise for wearing a swastika armband at a fancy dress party in 2005.
In the video the prince also told another officer cadet, who was jokingly wearing a camouflage veil: "Dan the man. F*** me, you look like a raghead."
Rather than an intended insult to Arabs, however, Clarence House said Prince Harry had used this term to mean the Taliban.
There was also laughter from his colleagues as Harry appeared to mock his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, while acting-out a mobile phone call sending his "love to the corgis" before signing off: "God save you."
The revelations represent a major embarrassment for the royal family and a setback for the prince, whose image and popularity improved greatly after his military service in Afghanistan last year. The ministry of defence was also at pains to reject suggestions that the episode might reflect any racist culture in the officer class of a British army eager to recruit from Britain's ethnic minority communities.
"Neither the army nor the armed forces tolerates inappropriate behaviour in any shape or form," said an MoD spokesman: "The army takes all allegations of inappropriate behaviour very seriously and all substantive allegations are investigated."
The British equality and human rights commission, however, said these appeared to be disturbing allegations, and that it would be asking the ministry to see and share the evidence, and their plans for dealing with it.
As a spokesman for the Ramadhan Foundation branded the prince a "thug", Conservative leader David Cameron said Prince Harry was right to apologise for his "completely unacceptable" comments. Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said the remarks would have caused "considerable offence" while suggesting it was right to "move on" and "draw a line" under the affair.