Queen's Commonwealth

From the BBC:

"Commonwealth Day: Queen attends Westminster Abbey"

 

The Queen has attended the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey. The Duke of Edinburgh, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry also attended the annual event. In a message in the programme for the service, the Queen said people of the Commonwealth should "support those in need" and others who "feel excluded". Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said the Queen had showed "steadfast devotion" to the Commonwealth. Singer Ellie Goulding performed at the abbey. Other guests at the multi-faith service included outgoing Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma, Joseph Muscat - the prime minister of Malta, which hosted the last Commonwealth heads of government meeting - and high commissioners from the association's 53 member nations. In the evening, the Queen and Prince Philip will attend a reception hosted by Mr Sharma at Marlborough House, the home of the Commonwealth Secretariat, near Buckingham Palace.  "Today the Commonwealth stands as a confident, modern, multicultural and proudly inclusive organisation," Mr Annan said during the service.  He said the Queen had showed "unwavering and steadfast devotion" to the Commonwealth, adding: "We are greatly honoured and deeply grateful for your extraordinary commitment to its people."  The Queen is the head of the Commonwealth, and her annual message to the association addressed its 2016 theme - inclusivity. In the programme, she wrote that an essential ingredient of belonging to the Commonwealth was a "willingness to share, to exchange and to act for the common good".  "By including others, drawing on collective insights, knowledge and resources, and thinking and working together, we lay the foundations of a harmonious and progressive society."  The Commonwealth, a loose association of former British colonies and current dependencies, along with some countries with no historical ties to Britain, represents 2.3 billion people, of which 60% are under 30. Members include Australia, Canada, Cyprus, Fiji, Ghana, Grenada, India, Jamaica, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Singapore and South Africa.  In his Commonwealth Day message, Mr Sharma said: "Globalisation, the digital revolution and interdependence make us both a rapidly compacting but also colliding world.  "The strengths of the Commonwealth were never needed more to assert fairness in global outcomes and trust in the richness of our human identities."

 

^ The Commonwealth of Nations claims to be united, but there are many areas (the economy, education, industry, civil rights, etc) that need to be addressed and "united." The Commonwealth Realm countries should at least be on the same "page" if not all the Commonwealth member states. Not much has been done with the Commonwealth and it has a lot of potential both for the member-states as well as outside the organization. While I don't see it as becoming like the EU, it does have more potential then it is currently using. ^

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-35800692