Queen to Limit Royal Visits to Commonwealth Countries including Australia
Commonwealth countries like Australia and New Zealand might miss the Queen for a long time after Buckingham Palace announced that she will no longer visit Commonwealth countries to avoid the Queen's long-haul travels, Telegraph UK reports.
The spokesman from Buckingham explains that "Any long-haul trips will be looked at on a case by case basis. The Duke of Edinburgh, for example, was in Canada two weeks ago. There is no suggestion that the Queen's diary will become less busy.
This is a part of an on-going process looking at the Queen's long haul travel arrangements." The Palace was quick to clear though that the Queen was "doing as much as ever, and it is very much business as usual." Prince Charles will represent her for those countries removed from the Queen's itinerary.
The decision is likened to the palace's decision in 2011 where members of the Royal Family were sent to attend overseas engagements for the Diamond Jubilee while the Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh visited nearby places like England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
At present, the Queen's confirmed itinerary for the month of May includes Cornwall on May 17 and Cambridge on May 23. She is set to travel with The Duke of Edinburgh. For the month of June, she will visiting Arggyl and Sutherland Highlanders at Howe Barracks in Canterbury.
In the opinion of Royal Commentator Richard Fitzwilliams, the decision to limit the Queen's travel "was very significant in light of the Queen's personal commitment to the Commonwealth and a sign care was being taken to balance her workloads. Throughout her reign the Queen has been absolutely dedicated to the Commonwealth. It's her personal dedication to this organization that has really helped to keep it going."
Fitzwilliams added: "There's absolutely no doubt that if the Queen isn't going to the meeting, this is clearly a sign that at 87, she will have been advised that balancing her workloads is very important. Advancing age has its limitations. I would have thought that it's only sensible to take account of advancing age and clearly medical advice, if you consider the number of engagements she has had. If you consider we have a monarch of 87 and her consort of 91. In 1,000 years of the monarchy we've seen nothing like it."
From 1984, the Queen was able to attend to 15,000 visitations to Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Australia, Jordan and Thailand that the Palace's confirmation of limiting her travels to far-off countries arouses suspicion that the Queen is participating the all out call for a boycott against Sri Lanka on the grounds of the country's human rights violation. The Palace denied this.
According to Fitzwilliams the Duke and Duchess had too much on their plates now that the Prince of Wales should take on a few more, "I think there's absolutely no doubt that the Prince of Whales will take on the head of the Commonwealth eventually. I think it's absolutely essential that the British monarch will remain head of the Commonwealth."
He assured everyone that, "If the next Commonwealth meeting is held somewhere that the Queen can attend, I am sure she will. The Queen will do everything she can for as long as she can, she has extreme stamina."
"We know that the Queen hates letting anyone down."