I look forward to welcoming you as a citizen. It's just an idea, but such an obviously good one that I can't understand why we haven't done it already. Our politicians are either being servile to US politicians or being servile to EU ones. But we have forgotten about the Commonwealth, the one group in the world where we can be equal partners.
Before the US became impossible, I used to think we should create such a group as well, including us. I’ve always thought an English-speaking English heritage group would be formidable. My husband and I probably tossed the idea around 20 years ago.
Daniel, this article was pure poetry and music to my ears! I would be all for absolutely everything you describe in this article! A British Commonwealth encompassing Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the nations of the Caribbean is exactly what we need right now! I would have no problem at all with a multipolar world. We need to have a counterbalance to America, Russia, China, and the EU! Not to mention another option for those who love democracy but don’t like the way the United States and EU are doing things and see how broken and in need of reform the UN is. I’m a patriotic American who supported Donald Trump and I still believe in the EU and UN. But I also don’t entirely agree with the stuff Trump is doing right now. No, Canada shouldn’t be a state! No, we shouldn’t take back the Panama Canal! No, the Gulf of Mexico is NOT the Gulf of America! No, we shouldn’t be doing protectionism! The EU and UN are broken and badly in need of a massive reformation. I’m not crazy about Brexit, but it is the will of the British people and so I respect it and furthermore I must agree Daniel, that the other EU nations have not always done right by Britain. I love the special relationship between our countries. But you’re right it has been uneven with the U.S. being the one in the driver’s seat and these days it’s strained to nonexistent. The Commonwealth would spread democracy, capitalism and human rights around the globe, assist refugees, asylum seekers and displaced persons, combat piracy by the Houthis and others, protect minority communities around the world, topple dictatorships, wipe out terrorist groups and impose order on the international scene, and back up Israel in its fight for survival against its Arab and Iranian enemies. Free movement of people and free trade would be established and peace and prosperity would reign supreme in the Commonwealth. When India, Nigeria and I would add South Africa get their GDP up and in South Africa’s case get a better government, they too should be considered for admittance into the Commonwealth. Singapore would be a good candidate for a Commonwealth member! I think the nations of the Commonwealth should open charter cities in countries all over the developed world with the consent of those governments to spread the blessings of liberty, freedom, justice, and prosperity to those nations. Yemen should be put under the control of a liberal democracy under British tutelage. British charter cities should be opened there too. There should also be defense pacts signed between the British Commonwealth and Israel and Saudi Arabia. The New Commonwealth superpower would also challenge the U.S. Navy for supremacy of the seas.
Daniel, As so often, you write in such a thought provoking and creative fashion. This is a brilliant article. I see why others have responded so positively. However, as someone who has no roots in any of the countries you mention, but follows the news rather consistently, I wonder whether the other countries involved would really want to take on the burden of contemporary Britain. Why would Canada, Australia, NZ and the Caribbean states want to carry that poorly run country on their backs? A federation of Canada, Australia, NZ, and the Caribbean states makes a kind of sense as you note, although the geography is prohibitive, that historic curse of distance that influenced Australia and NZ's development so profoundly. However, adding Britain to the mix adds an element of self-sabotage. GB is not a going concern these days.
Thanks for your comments Anan. I think that spread out geography would be our strength as we would be able to ensure international control of the world's sea lanes (against Nasser type dictators) and have huge territorial waters. If the UK and Australia could be connected in the 19th Century then surely we can in the current technological 21st Century!
This is could work but even the Australia, NZ, Canada, and the UK combined would still need to be allied with France in areas like aerospace(Airbus and Rolls Royce) and nuclear technology to be considered a super power(Will also mention Airbus is now heavily involved in the Canadian aerospace industry as well after buying Bombardier). A type of intergovernmental alliance between the Commonwealth led by the UK and the EU led by France could work but it would have be an alliance of equals. Many in the UK still think they are superior to France but would have to accept being an "equal" if they are to have a realistic chance of challenging America's Trump. Both sides would have a mutual interest in ensuring Denmark's sovereignty over Greenland(Denmark being an EU member) along with ensuring British control over territories like the Falklands and Canadian sovereignty vis a vis the US. It is generally well known that France considers it a core strategic priority that the UK remain a nuclear weapons state and would step in if the US ceased nuclear cooperation with the UK.
The days of the UK thinking it was superior to France were over once the first French nuclear test occurred.
The other country no one has mentioned is Japan. Japan doesn't really fit in with either the EU or Commonwealth but perhaps should be considered the third leg of a trilateral EU-Commonwealth-Japan alliance. The UK, Italy, and Japan are already cooperating extensively developing a new stealth fighter jet and in recent weeks there have been suggestions that a competing French/German/Spanish effort be merged into this Anglo/Italian/Japanese program. Japan is also the largest member of the CPTPP trade agreement of which the UK, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand are all members as well.
Post Cold War the French Navy is now heavily concentrated in the Mediterranean with a minimal presence in the North Atlantic and North Sea other than France's SSBN. The Royal Navy on the otherhand despite still processing bases in places like Gibraltar and Cyprus largely operates in the "Home Seas" of the Atlantic and North Sea hence the mutual complements.
I think it is also telling despite the lowering of UK tariffs to Australian and Canadian agriculture French agriculture is still quite dominant in the UK. The state of French agriculture is much more competitive that it was in 1973 and there is a big difference between reducing agriculture tariffs across the board to all agricultural imports whether they be French, Australian, New Zealand(the current UK system) and giving preferred status Commonwealth agriculture over continental European agriculture as was the case pre 1974. People also want fresher produce today in a way they did not in 1970 with lower shipment times.
Hi Tim, in the first place I would like to thank you for signing up to Guerre and Shalom on the full plan. Without the support of people such as yourself, this work would not be possible. I appreciate your qualified support for my proposal. I agree that The Commonwealth would seek close alliances with France/the EU as well as Japan. They, together with the US and ourselves, would be the backbone of the Western alliance. However, by combining as The Commonwealth, we would have greater clout and we would be able to prioritise the safety of the shipping lanes and major waterways for free trade which neither the EU nor the US treat as priorities. As a trading nation, it would be a priority for us.
It also makes sense for nations with the same priorities, histories, politics and culture to unite. The UK was the odd one out in Europe.
Something else I do want to bring up is even at the height of the British Empire the UK entered into a series of Free Trade Agreements with continental Europe starting with the Cobden-Chevalier Treaty between the UK and France in 1860. The Cobden-Chevalier agreement fell apart later largely due to protectionist pressures domestically in France in 1892 with the Meline tariff. Yet many of the other FTA's Britain signed with Continental Europe lasted quite a bit longer and were cancelled in part due to decisions on the British side. The German Zollverein-UK FTA ironically wasn't cancelled so much due to decisions in London or Berlin but the refusal of the larger dominions such as Australia and Canada to give "equal" treatment to German imports as to goods from the British Isles giving British goods instead favorable treatment later known as Commonwealth or Imperial preference. The Germans thought this was in violation of their FTA with the UK however, it is also important to note that in the UK itself Commonwealth or Imperial preference would only formally come into being during the Great Depression and ironically would be in existence longer after World War II than before it only being completed eliminated upon entry into the EEC.
I will later try to discuss why the Dominions where so much more eager for Imperial preference than the UK itself prior to the 1930s and what if any historical impact it has on today's trade policy making. Something I do note with interest is the CP-TPP nations Australia particularly were quite willing to allow the UK into the CP-TPP despite the UK retaining basically the entirety of EU(basically French) agricultural standards and phytosanitary standards from the time the UK was a member of the EU. The dislike of EU phytosanitary standards seems to be increasingly an American and American alone obsession. Then again if Australian market share of UK food consumption vis a vis French market share doesn't increase in the coming years post Brexit with Australia and France now on a level playing field tariff wise in the UK perhaps phytosanitary rules might be a reason why(or perhaps not).
In the really long run I wonder if EU membership in the CPTPP might not someday be a possibility. Again, something to talk about later.
Do you know who Ian Bishop is? Brian Charles Lara? Do you where to find Sabina Park or Kensington Oval? What happened at Headingly with Shai Hope? And have you subscribed to West Indies youtube channel to watch Test matches?
That ship has long sailed. Ironically Australia/NZ wanted this very much but Britain walked out and joined the common market in Europe and left them high and dry and on on the wrong side of tariffs. Australia shifted its trade elsewhere, mainly to Asia, out of necessity. The Asian market is now so giant the odds of Australia ever moving back are also zero.
Wow! I applaud you, my friend. I’m not fully sure if you were serious or drunk when you wrote this, you mix so many things, but what a piece! Just please move the Federation Parliament from London to Kingston (you know, because of the weather and the rum and all). God Save the King would be played with reggae music and, man, I hope you don’t close the door to the mighty Falklands and other beautiful islands. I hope we can remain friends (we’re kind of brethren in a way) when we plant our Stars and Stripes back on our lands by the Panama Canal, but other than that, just please hurry up and join with the Australians before their whole island turns into a Gazan colony. We’ll be watching from Greenland: you know deep inside we Yanks have always rooted for you Brits, since you stopped stealing our ships, enslaving our sailors and trying to burn our White House a second time. You’re a good man, and your article is a poetic proof of the crazy world we live in now, the absolutely sad waste of potential of your once great country and empire, and the lack of direction your Commonwealth world has been experiencing for a while now. Sadly, the tsunami of intolerance from the Muslim world is set to take over your lands in the next half century. I hope we can still offer you refuge when your whole world is on fire, pal. We’ll be fighting our traitors in the coming months to try and Make America Great Again. Pray for us as we pray for you. God bless. Shalom.
I am being serious insofar as it is a) entirely realistic (more realistic than having Vermont and Alabama in the same country) and b) beneficial for all. Whether our countries have the vision for it is quite another question. As you say the Commonwealth has been entirely directionless for a while. Viv-a-vis the Parliament in Kingston, it definitely has its attractions!
With respect hardly a pipe dream. These countries have a hell of a lot more in common that Vermont and Alabama. The UK Privy Council still serves as the highest appellate court for some Carribean countries.
If you ever formed such a union I would leave the US and join. I'm considering it anyway!
I look forward to welcoming you as a citizen. It's just an idea, but such an obviously good one that I can't understand why we haven't done it already. Our politicians are either being servile to US politicians or being servile to EU ones. But we have forgotten about the Commonwealth, the one group in the world where we can be equal partners.
Before the US became impossible, I used to think we should create such a group as well, including us. I’ve always thought an English-speaking English heritage group would be formidable. My husband and I probably tossed the idea around 20 years ago.
Daniel, this article was pure poetry and music to my ears! I would be all for absolutely everything you describe in this article! A British Commonwealth encompassing Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the nations of the Caribbean is exactly what we need right now! I would have no problem at all with a multipolar world. We need to have a counterbalance to America, Russia, China, and the EU! Not to mention another option for those who love democracy but don’t like the way the United States and EU are doing things and see how broken and in need of reform the UN is. I’m a patriotic American who supported Donald Trump and I still believe in the EU and UN. But I also don’t entirely agree with the stuff Trump is doing right now. No, Canada shouldn’t be a state! No, we shouldn’t take back the Panama Canal! No, the Gulf of Mexico is NOT the Gulf of America! No, we shouldn’t be doing protectionism! The EU and UN are broken and badly in need of a massive reformation. I’m not crazy about Brexit, but it is the will of the British people and so I respect it and furthermore I must agree Daniel, that the other EU nations have not always done right by Britain. I love the special relationship between our countries. But you’re right it has been uneven with the U.S. being the one in the driver’s seat and these days it’s strained to nonexistent. The Commonwealth would spread democracy, capitalism and human rights around the globe, assist refugees, asylum seekers and displaced persons, combat piracy by the Houthis and others, protect minority communities around the world, topple dictatorships, wipe out terrorist groups and impose order on the international scene, and back up Israel in its fight for survival against its Arab and Iranian enemies. Free movement of people and free trade would be established and peace and prosperity would reign supreme in the Commonwealth. When India, Nigeria and I would add South Africa get their GDP up and in South Africa’s case get a better government, they too should be considered for admittance into the Commonwealth. Singapore would be a good candidate for a Commonwealth member! I think the nations of the Commonwealth should open charter cities in countries all over the developed world with the consent of those governments to spread the blessings of liberty, freedom, justice, and prosperity to those nations. Yemen should be put under the control of a liberal democracy under British tutelage. British charter cities should be opened there too. There should also be defense pacts signed between the British Commonwealth and Israel and Saudi Arabia. The New Commonwealth superpower would also challenge the U.S. Navy for supremacy of the seas.
Thanks for your supportive comments Noah! What is your view on Trump's tariffs?
I’m opposed to Trump’s tariffs, I’m 100% for free, fair and open trade.
Good man!
Daniel, As so often, you write in such a thought provoking and creative fashion. This is a brilliant article. I see why others have responded so positively. However, as someone who has no roots in any of the countries you mention, but follows the news rather consistently, I wonder whether the other countries involved would really want to take on the burden of contemporary Britain. Why would Canada, Australia, NZ and the Caribbean states want to carry that poorly run country on their backs? A federation of Canada, Australia, NZ, and the Caribbean states makes a kind of sense as you note, although the geography is prohibitive, that historic curse of distance that influenced Australia and NZ's development so profoundly. However, adding Britain to the mix adds an element of self-sabotage. GB is not a going concern these days.
Thanks for your comments Anan. I think that spread out geography would be our strength as we would be able to ensure international control of the world's sea lanes (against Nasser type dictators) and have huge territorial waters. If the UK and Australia could be connected in the 19th Century then surely we can in the current technological 21st Century!
This is could work but even the Australia, NZ, Canada, and the UK combined would still need to be allied with France in areas like aerospace(Airbus and Rolls Royce) and nuclear technology to be considered a super power(Will also mention Airbus is now heavily involved in the Canadian aerospace industry as well after buying Bombardier). A type of intergovernmental alliance between the Commonwealth led by the UK and the EU led by France could work but it would have be an alliance of equals. Many in the UK still think they are superior to France but would have to accept being an "equal" if they are to have a realistic chance of challenging America's Trump. Both sides would have a mutual interest in ensuring Denmark's sovereignty over Greenland(Denmark being an EU member) along with ensuring British control over territories like the Falklands and Canadian sovereignty vis a vis the US. It is generally well known that France considers it a core strategic priority that the UK remain a nuclear weapons state and would step in if the US ceased nuclear cooperation with the UK.
The days of the UK thinking it was superior to France were over once the first French nuclear test occurred.
The other country no one has mentioned is Japan. Japan doesn't really fit in with either the EU or Commonwealth but perhaps should be considered the third leg of a trilateral EU-Commonwealth-Japan alliance. The UK, Italy, and Japan are already cooperating extensively developing a new stealth fighter jet and in recent weeks there have been suggestions that a competing French/German/Spanish effort be merged into this Anglo/Italian/Japanese program. Japan is also the largest member of the CPTPP trade agreement of which the UK, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand are all members as well.
Post Cold War the French Navy is now heavily concentrated in the Mediterranean with a minimal presence in the North Atlantic and North Sea other than France's SSBN. The Royal Navy on the otherhand despite still processing bases in places like Gibraltar and Cyprus largely operates in the "Home Seas" of the Atlantic and North Sea hence the mutual complements.
I think it is also telling despite the lowering of UK tariffs to Australian and Canadian agriculture French agriculture is still quite dominant in the UK. The state of French agriculture is much more competitive that it was in 1973 and there is a big difference between reducing agriculture tariffs across the board to all agricultural imports whether they be French, Australian, New Zealand(the current UK system) and giving preferred status Commonwealth agriculture over continental European agriculture as was the case pre 1974. People also want fresher produce today in a way they did not in 1970 with lower shipment times.
Hi Tim, in the first place I would like to thank you for signing up to Guerre and Shalom on the full plan. Without the support of people such as yourself, this work would not be possible. I appreciate your qualified support for my proposal. I agree that The Commonwealth would seek close alliances with France/the EU as well as Japan. They, together with the US and ourselves, would be the backbone of the Western alliance. However, by combining as The Commonwealth, we would have greater clout and we would be able to prioritise the safety of the shipping lanes and major waterways for free trade which neither the EU nor the US treat as priorities. As a trading nation, it would be a priority for us.
It also makes sense for nations with the same priorities, histories, politics and culture to unite. The UK was the odd one out in Europe.
Thanks Daniel,
Something else I do want to bring up is even at the height of the British Empire the UK entered into a series of Free Trade Agreements with continental Europe starting with the Cobden-Chevalier Treaty between the UK and France in 1860. The Cobden-Chevalier agreement fell apart later largely due to protectionist pressures domestically in France in 1892 with the Meline tariff. Yet many of the other FTA's Britain signed with Continental Europe lasted quite a bit longer and were cancelled in part due to decisions on the British side. The German Zollverein-UK FTA ironically wasn't cancelled so much due to decisions in London or Berlin but the refusal of the larger dominions such as Australia and Canada to give "equal" treatment to German imports as to goods from the British Isles giving British goods instead favorable treatment later known as Commonwealth or Imperial preference. The Germans thought this was in violation of their FTA with the UK however, it is also important to note that in the UK itself Commonwealth or Imperial preference would only formally come into being during the Great Depression and ironically would be in existence longer after World War II than before it only being completed eliminated upon entry into the EEC.
I will later try to discuss why the Dominions where so much more eager for Imperial preference than the UK itself prior to the 1930s and what if any historical impact it has on today's trade policy making. Something I do note with interest is the CP-TPP nations Australia particularly were quite willing to allow the UK into the CP-TPP despite the UK retaining basically the entirety of EU(basically French) agricultural standards and phytosanitary standards from the time the UK was a member of the EU. The dislike of EU phytosanitary standards seems to be increasingly an American and American alone obsession. Then again if Australian market share of UK food consumption vis a vis French market share doesn't increase in the coming years post Brexit with Australia and France now on a level playing field tariff wise in the UK perhaps phytosanitary rules might be a reason why(or perhaps not).
In the really long run I wonder if EU membership in the CPTPP might not someday be a possibility. Again, something to talk about later.
Tim
Outstanding. A wonderful idea: obvious and realistic.
Thanks!
Have you been to the Caribbean nations you mention in here?
Do you know who Ian Bishop is? Brian Charles Lara? Do you where to find Sabina Park or Kensington Oval? What happened at Headingly with Shai Hope? And have you subscribed to West Indies youtube channel to watch Test matches?
Good luck accomplishing this from a country whose most popular baby name is “Muhammad.”
That ship has long sailed. Ironically Australia/NZ wanted this very much but Britain walked out and joined the common market in Europe and left them high and dry and on on the wrong side of tariffs. Australia shifted its trade elsewhere, mainly to Asia, out of necessity. The Asian market is now so giant the odds of Australia ever moving back are also zero.
Vermont and Alabama have a tremendous amount in common .
What the free world needs to contend with is the religion of peace onslaught with their concomitant demands.
Too many politicians in Canada, Australia and Britain subservient to the vote and dollars that vote brings.
Wow! I applaud you, my friend. I’m not fully sure if you were serious or drunk when you wrote this, you mix so many things, but what a piece! Just please move the Federation Parliament from London to Kingston (you know, because of the weather and the rum and all). God Save the King would be played with reggae music and, man, I hope you don’t close the door to the mighty Falklands and other beautiful islands. I hope we can remain friends (we’re kind of brethren in a way) when we plant our Stars and Stripes back on our lands by the Panama Canal, but other than that, just please hurry up and join with the Australians before their whole island turns into a Gazan colony. We’ll be watching from Greenland: you know deep inside we Yanks have always rooted for you Brits, since you stopped stealing our ships, enslaving our sailors and trying to burn our White House a second time. You’re a good man, and your article is a poetic proof of the crazy world we live in now, the absolutely sad waste of potential of your once great country and empire, and the lack of direction your Commonwealth world has been experiencing for a while now. Sadly, the tsunami of intolerance from the Muslim world is set to take over your lands in the next half century. I hope we can still offer you refuge when your whole world is on fire, pal. We’ll be fighting our traitors in the coming months to try and Make America Great Again. Pray for us as we pray for you. God bless. Shalom.
I am being serious insofar as it is a) entirely realistic (more realistic than having Vermont and Alabama in the same country) and b) beneficial for all. Whether our countries have the vision for it is quite another question. As you say the Commonwealth has been entirely directionless for a while. Viv-a-vis the Parliament in Kingston, it definitely has its attractions!
You had me, until
"...redistribution of resources from the wealthiest to the poorest..."
If you like the general idea though, don't let one line get in the way of great (realistic) vision.
There is one clear pitfall in your pipe dream. What happens when the countries between the tropics become too hot to live in?
With respect hardly a pipe dream. These countries have a hell of a lot more in common that Vermont and Alabama. The UK Privy Council still serves as the highest appellate court for some Carribean countries.