Anthony Reeve is beside himself in his enthusiasm for the Old Empire, or Commonwealth. A grouping of 53 countries, not 54, I notice though that Anthony focuses on the 'the dominions'.

To the unknowledgeable that is basically Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and, at one time, Eire.

You may note that Eire actually left the Commonwealth and South Africa is a re-joiner. The remaining three have a large Caucasian population to which I guess Mr Reeve is alluding.

I would question the old hankering for the motherland cliché.

While there are no end of people who have emigrated to these countries from the UK and have descendants there, increasingly there are other races who have their roots in other countries and cultures and they are not so tied to this motherland.

South Africa is 80 per cent Black African for instance and of the nine per cent white population, there is a strong representation of Afrikaners who consider themselves South African.  Australia and Canada have very mixed populations and they look to trade regionally as there are strong markets and short supply lines.

Foreign languages don't seem to be a barrier for them: Canada is bi-lingual in some areas, and with so many different ethnic groups in Australia, it is easy to find someone with a local lingo. 

Incidentally, the French Canadians would rather not be part of Canada, let alone share a heritage with the UK.

So who's left to trade with. India?  They don't like us. What about Pakistan? Bangladesh? Namibia? That old Portuguese colony of Mozambique perhaps?  A group of the Caribbean countries are suing us for compensation over slavery and a lot of the other countries score low in Pointless. 

Malta and Cyprus could supply us with all our... Oh not them, they are in the EU.

Unfortunately the sun did set on the Empire and it is no longer called the British Commonwealth. 

It may be a grouping of 53 countries under one umbrella, but we don't all share the same language, ancestral heritage, ethnicity or values, and we certainly don't share the same sovereign.  Many in the Commonwealth consider the UK as a cash cow, no change from the EU then, but the EU doesn't put up as many trade barriers as our commonwealth friends.

– Ian Coghlan, by e-mail.