Monday, February 9, 2009

For one UN, you can have ten Commonwealths.

If you're living in the UK, then you're paying (or, actually, the government is taking money out of your pocket and paying it on your behalf) £54 annually to the EU, a tenner to Nato, a couple of quid for the United Nations...and 20p (that's twenty pence) to the Commonwealth
What a shameful state of affairs.

2 comments:

Not a Village in Westminster said...

The underuse of the Commonwealth is a national shame. I had the opportunity to travel to Grenada in the Caribbean and was struck in talking to people as to how much the Commonwealth meant to them.

For Britain it gives us a connection across the world which would allow us to support countries who have a historical tie to us and to promote good democracy. Opening up the Commonwealth further would also be a massive step forward - the fact that countries such as Palestine, Israel and Iraq could be considered potential members is a sign of its pontential strength.

- said...

That's because the Commonwealth barely does anything: there's a small Secretariat which discusses how to get schools to teach their children about other cultures and how best to make getting pissed on Commonwealth Day look like something worthy of taxpayers' money. Aside from that, it's just the occasional summit

Meanwhile the EU is actively involved in government, legislating and regulating.

Realistically, the Commonwealth is never going to be the EU: it's a fairly random assortment of countries spread across the globe, often today with very little to connect them. Whilst it's nice, and probably promotes a bit of a fuzzy Brotherhood of Man-type feeling, it's not really capable of anything more than it does.

Plus, it's got a shit flag.