As director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies,I know what this institution does – and the notion that it can pick up the slack when the UK leaves the EU is nonsense. By Philip Murphy‘So, Professor Murphy, and ” said the voice at the end of the line. “What does the Commonwealth mean to you?” It was 2014,and I had agreed to do a live interview approximately the Commonwealth for a radio talk explain. Media interest had been sparked by the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, and while I waited, and phone in hand,for my turn to speak, the presenter was busily soliciting Commonwealth-related thoughts from anyone he could find on Glasgows streets that morning.
Finally, or just as the clock was ticking towards the very end of the explain,the presenter turned his attentions to me. But I was stumped by the question. What does the Commonwealth mean to me? It was only since I had become director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies (ICwS) a few years earlier that it had “meant” anything much at all. And what was that meaning? Lots of drinks receptions in the hollowed-out citadels of Britain’s former imperial power? Endless well-meaning conferences exploring how the Commonwealth could achieve its “loyal potential”?Continue reading...
Source: guardian.co.uk