SPECT THE AT OR The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL
Telephone: 0171-405 1706; Fax 0171-242 0603
FALLING IN LOVE AGAIN
1_,ike Gannex raincoats, Acas and Incomes policies, the Commonwealth was one of those institutions ridiculed and dis- trusted by early Thatcherites. It was a haven for communist fellow travellers, they said, and had actively conspired against the West during the Cold War. They pointed to India and Pakistan having called on the Soviet Union rather than Britain to medi- ate when they went to war in 1965. All that aid, and they don't even let us cut a dash as mediators. The Commonwealth further offended the Right when it attacked Mrs Thatcher's policy of constructive engage- ment with South Africa. Today, the Commonwealth looks more than ever like a relic from the age of defer- ence, which, as Tony Blair tells us, has been replaced by the Age of Giving. In Australia, republicanism is rampant. The Queen's recent tour of India was a disaster. And this week a new book argued that English, long seen as the glue that held together Britain be its fissiparous former colonies, could oe about to lose its status as the principal ,..,language of global communication. When Commonwealth leaders meet in Edinburgh this weekend, many believe they should read the last rites over their institutional heirloom. B. ut before giving up on this supposed relic, conservatives of all political persua- sions should pause to consider what they longer discarding. The Commonwealth is no 1onger an embarrassing memento of our iMperial past. It has become a tool with which Britain can forge the new role that Robin Cook has been groping for, unsuc- cessfully. Globalisation — the loosening of geo- graphical ties in an age of instant communi- cation and growing international trade, and their replacement with economic and cul- !lira' bindings — has become a cliché. But ir gives the Commonwealth a new rele- vance. Its constituent nations have never they good at concerted political action; f lie): are currently unable to agree sanctions against Nigeria for human rights violations. .. But below the level of political debate and government intransigence, trade and language unite, even when politicians dis- agree. Some 10 per cent of British exports go to Commonwealth countries. Common-
wealth nations in Africa and Asia are increasingly seen as the next candidates for rapid economic growth. That is why George Soros has recently invested in both regions.
For Britain, such ties provide insurance against coercion in Europe, ensuring that it cannot be forced to participate in a federal European Union simply because there is no economic alternative. The same applies to other members of the Commonwealth, who should be reluctant, for both economic and political reasons, to become too dependent on their regional neighbours. Crucially, most have now abandoned central planning and embraced the market economics pio- neered in Thatcher's Britain.
Cultural ties also remain important. The continuing ebb and flow of ideas in art, music and literature between Britain and its former colonies have shaped the current cultural landscape throughout the Com- monwealth. It provides an important bal- ance against North American consumer cul- ture. And what better way to protect the international supremacy of English than through this network of nations, nearly all of which use it as either a primary or a sec- ondary language?
So it is time for conservatives to learn to love the Commonwealth again. They should ignore taunts from the ignorant that they are merely indulging in imperialist nostalgia. The British Empire, the red bits on the map, is now in the hands of histori- ans. But its surprisingly resilient offspring, the Commonwealth, is part of Britain's future. With the right encouragement, it should enrich all its members, culturally and economically, in the 21st century.
Mr Stephen Fry, the author and thes- pian, is under attack for saying that he once tried the drug Ecstasy and enjoyed it. Mr Fry's position as rector of Dundee universi- ty has been threatened as a result.
Mr Fry, however, was merely uttering the usual politically correct cliché about drugs, which could not have been more in keeping with university tradition. All tyrannies are initially supported by academia, including fascism and Nazism. Political correctness, the tyranny of our day, has been the recipi- ent of similar approval.
What Britain needs is fewer Mr Frys and more genuine rebels. Mr Fry's latest film has opened in London — in it he plays Oscar Wilde. We feel, however, that Wilde would never have uttered anything as pre- dictable as Mr Fry's remarks about drugs. Mr Fry believes that it is controversial to say things that will annoy what he sees as the right-wing establishment. But a mod- ern-day Oscar would have realised at once that it was far wittier to attack the practi- tioners of political correctness. If Oscar were alive today his epigrams would be directed not against Baroness Thatcher but against Baroness Blackstone. In fact, what Mr Fry should really have said was that he once tried Conservatism and enjoyed it. That would have been truly shocking.
Previous page
