Undemocratic Decision on Next Head of Commonwealth

The unanimous decision by 53 member countries of the Commonwealth to anoint Prince Charles as the next head of the now defunct British Empire only shows the white Anglo establishment personified by the remaining Dominions ie Canada, Australia and New Zealand for what it is: worthy of derision. Where is the democracy among equals, let alone the notion of a popular vote as white British people from one family will continue to head the multi-racial dinosaur by right of inheritance. That Australia went along with this, and has since 2013 – or even 2011 – when the UK sent out its flunkies world-wide to achieve the royal succession, means that Malcolm Turnbull has become as weak a republican as Julia Gillard was. The Prime Minister should be forced to come clean about this and the reasons why he backed the proposal before humbly apologising to the nation, as suggested by one letter writer to The Canberra Times, for his weak-kneed complicity, tearful apologies being fashionable just now. Perhaps all the real action is really in who is the Secretary-General rather than have a stoush over the symbolic head of a largely defunct body who needs work to do and justifications for endless trips inspecting the former Empire’s subjects. Compromise is always easier than change for those who lack courage, of course. But WfaAR is in two minds about this. Afua Hirsch in The UK Guardian wrote a persuasive piece suggesting that Empire 2.0 was so unimportant that it didn’t really matter if it were overseen by the British royals or not. Perhaps the Dominions’ leaders had better things to argue about and put their effort into at CHOGM in London (unusual location in itself) than who should be the next head. Seeing the ageing Queen plead her 70 year old son’s case was pretty unedifying in any event, maybe even for Charles. Read Hirsch’s article on the link below. [“What is the Commonwealth if not the British Empire 2.0” by Afua Hirsch, The Guardian online, 17 April 2018]

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