I spent quite a lot of time in government trying to think through how to revive the Commonwealth but all of this thinking was depending on Botchwey taking a different line from Scotland on the organisation’s purpose: that it should not essentially be a biannual summit for the Caribbean to pressure Britain to pay reparations. That, as CHOGM in Antigua approaches, has not come to pass. The summit attendance is barren with none of the major middle power leaders who have no interest in such a media fracas. Seen from Delhi in particular the whole things seems eccentric and self harming. However, Britain still needs a plan. Our objective should be as follows. First, the organisation itself should be left to the Palace to steer into a kind of Royal super NGO and convening platform. But the organisation itself is so badly run and dysfunctional even this however is a challenge. It is not a British organisation of course but belongs to the member states equally. Yet if the Palace wishes to have conversation about post-colonial legacy, an NGO-like civil society gathering, not an inter-governmental summit with a communique is the appropriate venue to do good cultural work. Second, the UK should wind down political investment and encourage others to do the same. Realistically this should involve the UK delaying summits, ending funding and slowly ending Prime Ministerial attendance. Efforts should be invested instead to develop a CANZUK summit as the key summit where with those leaders we engage allies through a non-hijacked platform and secretariat. That is the kind of format, G7-like, an Indian-leader might wish to attend and where work could be achieved. The King’s desire for CHOGM to continue as before is not a good enough reason for the foreign policy damage and time wasting. Third, the brand Commonwealth should be salvaged by the UK working with India and CANZUK states to host a major investment summit open to all member states. Building something functional, in this new format without a broken secretariat in charge, will do vastly more for our reach and prestige than clinging to something that is essentially just a poorly attended summit that actually harms our reputation and post-colonial relationships by providing the premier venue for the Caribbean reparations campaign. Needless to say the King’s presence can be integrated into all this new summitry. But this, not His Majesty is the essential. In an important way, the Commonwealth’s early evolution post-war was a way for Attlee and Churchill to engage with Nehru. We need to build totally new summit with this brand around investment that can work again with India, not be hostage to what is an old, broken and counterproductive format. Investment, of course, not manufactured dead end rows are ultimately what the Global South needs too.

It is time to admit that the Commonwealth does not only not serve its purpose, but works against its premise of post-imperial comity. This is because it has become a little more than a poorly attended biannual summit whose only purpose seems to be to for Caribbean countries to lobby Britain for reparations. This does nothing but worsen these relationships. My view was Botchwey was the last chance to try and pull the organisation back from this dead end but this had clearly failed. CHOGM is going ahead without any major reforms to its structure or meaningful agenda, resented by those in government involved in it as a result. It is now only a matter of time before Prime Ministers stop attending our next King cuts the cord and eventually a new CANZUK-type summit or body is pursued.