Queen Elizabeth II 'getting fed up' with walkabouts, says royal author

Her Majesty started the walkabout in the 1970s as a way for her to meet and interact with the public during royal visits.

The walkabout is a long-held tradition among the British royal family especially for Queen Elizabeth II because it gives her the opportunity to interact with the public. But nowadays she is said to be growing tired of it because of the advancement in technology.

Her Majesty may have found the use of video calls useful during the COVID-19 lockdown because she still got to hold audiences and meet diplomats, albeit remotely. But one thing that cannot be replicated remotely is the walkabout, which according to royal biographer Ian Lloyd, is something that the Queen used to enjoy.

But aside from her episodic mobility issues, which have forced her to limit her public engagements, the public rarely interacts with her anymore because they only want to take her picture. This is why, according to royal author Ian Lloyd, Queen Elizabeth II may not entirely enjoy this part of her royal visits anymore.

"I also think she was starting to get fed up with walkabouts," he told The Express.

The author of " 'The Queen: 70 Chapters in the Life of Elizabeth II" added, "They were set up by her in the 1970s as a way of meeting people but these days people only wants selfies and photographs of her, they just hold up their cameras or, even more alarming, their iPads so she is faced with a wall of that when she looks at the crowd, it's horrible."

Lloyd remembered what Princess Anne once said about mobile phones. She said that because of them "people now only actually believe they have seen something if they can photograph it so they lose the immediacy, their memory."

The royal biographer continued, "Also there is a lack of respect in this, when the walkabout started 40 or 50 years ago people would have never dreamed of sticking up a camera in the Queen's face."

Queen Elizabeth II may be having mobility issues because of her age. After all, she is already 96 years old. Her most recent public appearance was at the "Platinum Jubilee Celebration: A Gallop Through History" horse show last week.