The fact that Harry wasn't "deliberately trying to cause offence" by calling someone a Paki, that he was (possibly) using the term "affectionately", makes it no less racist.

There's an Asian girl in my daughter's class at school. Lincolnshire isn't a particularly culturally diverse part of the country, so she's one of a handful of non-white girls in the year group. My daughter came home one day quite shocked, because some of her friends had been referring to the girl as a "Paki". They even said it to her face. The girl laughted it off, because she felt she had to. She later told my daughter that she hated it, and that if her parents found out they'd go mad. But she continues to put up with it, because she doesn't want to have a row or alienate herself from the group.

Do these girls think they're causing offence? Probably not. Are they deliberately setting out to enforce racial hatred? Of course not. Are their words nevertheless hurtful and racist? Undoubtedly.

Thuis is the problem with low-level, culturally-reinforced racism. These were schoolgirls, probably just repeating what they've heard at home. Prince Harry really ought to bloody well know better. And I would have thought the same is true of some of the Mudcatters below who have defended it.