Whatever happened to the Commonwealth?

In reply to questions on his statement on Iraq during the September recall of Parliament Tony Blair said it was an article of faith with him that the American relationship was of fundamental importance.

I took this to imply that this meant in any difference of opinion between the USA and the international community, the UK would always side with America.

Of course the USA are our close allies with whom we share many common values. The founding 13 colonies were British, although it must be said that Spain, France and the Netherlands had an important stake in the foundation of modern America.

In the past 100 years America has played a crucial role in saving Europe from dictatorship and oppression. Since the collapse of communism American fire power and diplomacy has been crucial to our attempts to bring order to the Balkans.

We share a common language and aspects of our culture such as popular music, cinema and television.

However like so many relationships it looks different from the other side. A Swedish ambassador once told me that two great unrequited loves in Europe were that of the Germans for the Swedes and the Swedes for Britain.

Scots love to talk about the French in terms of the Auld Alliance. Yet few, if any French people I have met know anything of that. Britain talks about a special relationship with the United States, yet there is little evidence of this when visiting the States or looking at their media.

In fact, in spite of our common traits, Americans generally view the world quite differently. What happens outside America is of little relevance. Relatively few Americans travel. Their short holidays make it difficult anyway. For most while it may be nice to go travelling it's so much nicer to go home.

While the UK wrings it hands about our education performance we are in the top half of the table of achievement among developed countries while the USA languishes near the bottom. These factors help explain why most Americans don't know where Iraq is or why it poses a threat. It also explains why so much of the funding for the IRA came from sources in the USA – hardly what we should expect from our best friends.

It is two and a quarter centuries since we lost the American colonies since when we have won and lost a world wide Empire. But that has a heritage too and of much more recent impact.

Geographically and historically the British Isles are part of Europe and with the development of the European Union it is right and proper that Britain should take a full part that is central to the way we address the world.

At the time we joined there was much debate of our kith and kin in the Commonwealth. Perhaps it sunk into our subconscious that if our future was in Europe our relations with the Commonwealth were somehow inevitably muted.

Perhaps the speed with which we dismantled the Empire damaged our self confidence or racked us with guilt so that we felt we should turn away. Yet the Commonwealth still exists and still wants to.

A few years ago I attended a seminar in Zimbabwe to discuss with Zimbabwean MPs how Parliament could play a more effective role in a Presidential one party state. That was before Mr Mugabe had decided to hold on to power at all costs to himself and the country.

There was one MP who was not a member of ZANU (Mugabe's ruling party). She was Margaret Ndongo, a former member of ZAPU which had merged with ZANU ostensibly to remove tribal tensions.

Margaret had been a freedom fighter in the bush at the time of Ian Smith's breakaway regime after Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence.

She was never happy in ZANU and became estranged.

She represented the constituency of Harare Central (which contained the Parliament, the Presidential Palace and most Government buildings). At the last election but one she stood as an independent.

When she arrived at the count the ZANU representative greeted her saying “Nice try, Margaret, but you lost and we won.” “I don't think so”, was her reply.

She asked the presiding officer to do a sample check on the boxes matching the numbers on random ballot papers to the electoral register. Fairly quickly it was discovered several people had voted from false addresses (including her own home).

She asked the returning officer to halt the count, re-seal the boxes and arrange for a court hearing on the Monday – resisting requests from ZANU to let them concede the election to her.

The point of the story as she told it to me was to say that she knew that she would appear before an ex-colonial white judge but that she would get justice which she duly did. He ordered the election void and declared a by-election, which she won hands down.

This brought home to me that there is a legacy of language, culture and law shared not only by the “old” colonies such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand but also by those in Africa and Asia. There is a huge exchange between India, Pakistan, Nigeria and South Africa and young people from the antipodes travel in their thousands to the UK for their “overseas experience”.

Canada may be the USA's next door neighbour but Canadians are worlds apart in their attitude to the international community playing a full role in the United Nations and maintaining close relations with Europe.

Of the observer states of the council of Europe (the USA, Japan Mexico and Canada) Canadian MPs alone takes part in our debates and deliberations and clearly share similar values on, for example, human rights issues.

The United Kingdom does not have to choose between our relations with the USA, Europe and the Commonwealth. Our alliance with the USA is defined by history and a common inheritance. Our relationship with Europe is enshrined in treaties and everyday institutions. Our links with the Commonwealth seem at times to have been relegated to footnotes.

It is surely time to top up the reservoir of goodwill that resides in the Commonwealth family of nations. Of course there are difficulties (Zimbabwe, Kashmir and Sharia law in Nigeria spring to mind) but there is real potential for good. Sierra Leone proves a point but there is much more could be done in Africa.

Promoting our friendship with America above all others risks alienating our ties with the Commonwealth, Europe and the wider world. That cannot enhance Britain's international standing in the long term.