Comment
ARTHUR EDWARDS
Prince Harry’s lost the plot to slam the Queen’s beloved Commonwealth ‘club’
PRINCE Harry is entitled to his views. But in criticising the Commonwealth – the organisation closest to his grandmother’s heart – he has simply lost the plot.
One of the Queen’s greatest achievements has been keeping together 54 countries in this “family of nations”, which grew out of the end of the British Empire.
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She treats every single one of these countries, large and small — from India, Canada and Australia to tiny island states such as Tuvalu, Malta and Cyprus — as equals.
Harry knows just how important the Commonwealth is to the Queen.
And Meghan does too. When she wore her wedding veil, embroidered with the flower of every Commonwealth nation, the Queen was touched.
So to criticise the one thing the Queen cherishes above all things, which is preserving the Commonwealth, is an insult to her — no matter what the palace may say officially.
Any country can look back and find faults, but we learn from history and move on.
Harry should stop listening to his wife, who is obviously filling him full of these ideas.
She is evidently no fan of Her Majesty’s beloved Commonwealth.
Indeed, after the Commonwealth service at Westminster Abbey in March — her and Harry’s last official royal engagement — Meghan couldn’t wait to leave.
QUEEN SMILED AND SWAYED TO BOB MARLEY
She went straight to Heathrow Airport, where British Airways staff held up the last flight to Vancouver so she could get on.
At least Harry stayed and spent the evening with the Queen and the rest of the Royal Family.
Harry and Meghan’s grand pronouncements — made in their roles as President and Vice President of the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust charity — about this historic organisation will tarnish its reputation, especially among younger people who will have scant knowledge of what it is and what it does.
And that will concern the Queen the most.
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All you need to know about the Commonwealth
What is the Commonwealth?
IT is a community of nations dedicated to international relations, democracy and human rights.
Membership is voluntary but the organisation created a charter in 2012 which sets out rules members have to follow.
The majority of its members are ex-British territories that have chosen to maintain diplomatic and economic ties to Britain and its former colonies.
How many people live in the Commonwealth?
A third of the entire word’s population, with the total population of all the 54 countries at about 2.245billion. Almost half of these live in India.
The three largest Commonwealth nations by population are India at 1.3billion, Pakistan at 160million, and Bangladesh at 140million.
Tuvalu and Nauru are the smallest members, each with a population of less than 11,000.
What is its murky history?
BRITAIN has been accused of sugarcoating its empirical history through the Commonwealth.
Critics have raised the UK’s treatment of member countries while they were part of the British Empire.
This includes holding half a million people in concentration camps in Kenya before the country gained independence in 1963.
In the Indian famine of the 1870s, the British Government was accused of starving its subjects by refusing to stop exports.
In 2014, some Caribbean Commonwealth members tried to sue Britain for its role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Britain has also been accused of not looking after its former subjects in Commonwealth countries.
The country faced controversy in 2018 when the Government deported Windrush immigrants – including many from Commonwealth states.
Between 1948 and 1970, around half a million West Indians – including from Trinidad, Jamaica and Barbados – had moved to the UK to fill job shortages.
But changes to immigration rules in 2012 meant their right to remain was questioned and immigrants were refused access to the NHS and the state pension.
Who runs the Commonwealth?
IT IS run by its member states, but has a Secretary-General who serves a maximum of eight years in the post.
Currently this is British-Dominican Rt Hon Patricia Scotland QC (pictured above), who has held the position since 2016.
The Queen serves as a symbolic figurehead to the organisation and although this is not a hereditary position, Prince Charles was chosen as the Queen’s successor in 2018.
Who are its members?
THERE are 54 member states, including Canada and Australia.
While most are past British colonies, states may join if they have a constitutional connection to a member country like Samoa has to New Zealand.
The newest countries to join are Rwanda in 2009 and Mozambique in 1995 – neither were part of the British Empire.
Key dates in 90-year history
1931: Eight British dominions estab- lish the British Commonwealth of Nations
1947: India becomes an independent republic but remains a member
1949: King George VI becomes Head of the Common- wealth
1952: Queen Elizabeth II becomes Head of the Common- wealth after the death of her father
1972: Pakistan leaves in protest over member countries recognising Bangladesh. It rejoins in 1989
1995: Mozambique becomes the first member to not have a link to the UK or a member state
1995: Nigeria is suspended after writer Ken Saro-Wiwa was executed by the Government. It rejoins in 1996
2002: Zimbabwe is suspended from the organisation over its violent elections
2009: Rwanda joins
2013: The Gambia accuses the organisation of being “an extension to colonialism” and renounces its membership, but rejoins in 2018
2018: Prince Charles is announced as the next Head of the Commonwealth
2020: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex call on the organisation to acknowledge its colonial past
The Commonwealth’s total population of around 2.245billion means one in three of the people in the world is a citizen.
With 54 members, its job, by its own definition, is “to promote prosperity, democracy and peace and amplify the voice of small states”.
During her near 70-year reign, the Queen has visited every single member country — bar Cameroon and Rwanda who joined later — including places such as Mozambique that were never part of the British Empire.
And over the past 40 years I have accompanied members of the Royal Family to 43 of those nations.
To criticise the one thing the Queen cherishes above all things is an insult to her.
I have seen the Queen walk, without her shoes on, in the temples of Islamabad in Pakistan and at Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial in Delhi, India.
In Montego Bay, Jamaica, I photographed her smiling while she swayed to the music of Bob Marley as he sang “Don’t worry ’bout a thing”.
At a durbar (reception) in Ghana people had travelled miles to play their drums for the Queen, who tapped her feet to the beat under the West African sun.
In the year before the pandemic, Prince Charles, the organisation’s new head, continued her work, travelling to 20 Commonwealth countries — proof of how important this organisation is to the Queen and her heirs.
The Queen is never happier than with the heads of government at the Commonwealth state banquet, where she dresses in her finery and jewels.
She individually greets every single head of state, who she knows personally, and they can call her at any time for advice.
Former South African President Nelson Mandela used to regularly call Buckingham Palace and ask to speak to “My Dear Elizabeth”.
She remembers every name and the names of their spouses.
So many times I have witnessed the joy at these get-togethers that are so unlike any other state visit.
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54 member countries
AFRICA: 1. Botswana, 2. Cameroon, 3. The Gambia, 4. Ghana, 5. Kenya, 6. Kingdom of Eswatini, 7. Lesotho, 8. Malawi, 9. Mauritius, 10. Mozambique, 11. Namibia, 12. Nigeria, 13. Rwanda, 14. Seychelles, 15. Sierra Leone, 16. South Africa, 17. Uganda, 18. United Rep of Tanzania, 19. Zambia
ASIA: 20. Bangladesh, 21. Brunei, 22. India, 23. Malaysia, 24. Maldives, 25. Pakistan, 26. Singapore, 27. Sri Lanka
CARIBBEAN AND AMERICAS: 28. Antigua and Barbuda, 29. The Bahamas, 30. Bar- bados, 31. Belize, 32. Canada, 33. Dominica, 34. Grenada, 35. Guyana, 36. Jamaica, 37. Saint Lucia, 38. St Kitts and Nevis, 39. St Vincent and The Grenadines, 40. Trinidad and Tobago
EUROPE: 41. Cyprus, 42. Malta, 43. United Kingdom
PACIFIC: 44. Australia, 45. Fiji, 46. Kiribati, 47. Nauru, 48. New Zealand, 49. Papua New Guinea, 50. Samoa, 51. Solomon Islands, 52. Tonga, 53. Tuvalu, 54. Vanuatu
The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, which is held every two years, was due to take place last month in Rwanda, in central Africa.
Due to the coronavirus crisis, it has had to be postponed to next year — and Prince Charles will be there, with Camilla by his side wearing the jewels at the state banquet.
But it is not all tiaras, state banquets and champagne receptions.
When natural tragedies hit, the Commonwealth rallies round and donates money and resources to its members who are suffering.
THE GOOD IT DOES
The Prince of Wales, representing The Queen, was the first dignitary to go to the West Indies in the wake of Hurricane Maria in 2017.
He visited several islands, including Dominica, to offer words of comfort for the people.
I watched as the Prince trudged through the rubble as workers, mainly from Britain, toiled 15-hour days, seven days a week, to try to rebuild the country.
Every four years you see the good this organisation does, at the Commonwealth Games — nations competing against each other in an incredible spirit.
You see it every year at the Commonwealth service at Westminster Abbey.
Most of the group’s people are Muslim but the Queen gets them all under the roof of that Christian church.
In 2012, as part of her Diamond Jubilee celebration, she insisted every member country had a royal visit.
William and Catherine went to Malaysia and Tuvalu but Harry, who visited the West Indies, was the star.
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He hugged the Jamaican Prime Minister, ran races with Usain Bolt and, in his blue suede shoes, danced with kids in the clubs.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
He knew just how important this organisation is to his grandmother.
How quickly he forgets.
'Empires sins have not been ignored'
By Inaya Folarin Iman, writer and campaigner
THE vision of the Commonwealth is one of nations cooperating on equal terms in order to help each other.
This idea of togetherness, which is at the heart of an institution that covers 54 countries in six continents and 2.2billion people, is a positive one.
While Harry’s grandmother, the Queen, is the head of the Commonwealth, she does not rule it.
In fact, the Commonwealth’s Secretary-General is a black woman, Patricia Scotland, and unlike the European Union, this is not a trading block where rules are imposed.
Economically it is beneficial, with around 20 per cent of global trade conducted by Commonwealth nations and £500billion of trade between them.
More importantly, any country wishing to join the club has to be free and democratic.
So why is Harry, the President of the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust, taking aim at it?
He said in a statement this week that: “When you look across the Commonwealth, there is no way we can move forward unless we acknowledge the past.”
His comments are a massive symbol of the flagrant hypocrisy of the woke ideology.
Here you have a member of the Royal Family – who are the most significant beneficiaries of imperialism and colonialism – lecturing ordinary people on what they should do to reflect on the Commonwealth’s roll in the past.
The monarchy as an institution is the symbol of hierarchy, it is based on unearned power, which is in stark contrast to Harry and Meghan’s message that we all need to be equal.
This patronising, virtue-signalling narrative is not a principled position.
If Harry believed in total equality he would be arguing against the Monarchy itself.
I also think he is wrong, because I don’t see any evidence that we have ignored the sins of the British Empire.
We talk about colonialism and its horrors are taught in history lessons in school.
Harry says an acknowledgement of the past is “not going to be comfortable”.
I don’t think it is helpful for him to re-insert past grievances.
What we need is a forward-thinking perspective.
The Commonwealth was a product of imperialism, but now it has become something very different.
I am British born and I have Nigerian heritage. Within the Commonwealth those countries continue to share a bond.
The Commonwealth emerged in the decolonisation process, through nations that were united in being former colonial states still being able to connect with one another, to share information, to share history, in various different ways.
It maintains those connections, but not from a colonial perspective of British rule.
This organisation is a symbol of a fresh start for the relationship between nations that were once part of the British Empire.
That’s an example of how we can move on from the past – we move on through our actions, by transcending history, by being more than that, by looking towards the future.
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Piers Morgan slams Harry and Meghan saying, 'They're the most comfortable people in the world' for criticising Commonwealth
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