Tea, royal patter and enlightened ideas at London powwow

It’s easy to write off President Cyril Ramaphosa’s visit to the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in London. Until I saw SA’s new president waltzing around Buck Pal to chat with the head of the organisation, I had the impression I was the only person in SA who thought the Commonwealth was worth saving and nurturing.

I have actually attended two Chogms (Commonwealth heads of government meetings). The first was in Harare soon after the release of Nelson Mandela, which was where the Commonwealth decided to formally endorse democracy and good governance.

In a typical Chogm interaction, I was sitting at a bar chatting with a friendly guy and I asked him what he did for crust. “I’m the president of Papua NewGuinea,” he said. I blushed.

The second I attended was in Edinburgh in the late 2000s, and on this occasion I met Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip and Princess Margaret. It was with a small group of international journalists, and we had, inevitably, tea. I wish I knew then what I know now about the royal family after having watched the series The Queen, since, as we all know, the truth is better expressed in fiction. I would have been more aware of how seriously Queen Elizabeth takes the Commonwealth.

It was an odd occasion. I had no idea we were off to meet Queen Elizabeth when the small group was corralled by some Chogm organisers and taken to a convenient manor house. We were told we could decide whether to bow, it was up to us. I didn’t.

I happened to be carrying a large bag, and Prince Philip asked with a bright smile whether I was moving in. I told him it would just be for a few months. The royal trio moved around the room, joining and leaving the social bouquets with ruthless efficiency, discussing entirely nothing. It was a great feat of English delicacy, in which manners trump frank discussion by a country mile.

I was hoping to bring up the delicate subject of the Boer concentration camps in which my great aunt died, but alas didn’t get the chance.

I like the Commonwealth because it’s such an odd organisation. It consists of 53 countries, almost a third of the global population, most of which were at one point part of the British Empire, but recently several countries that never were decided to join, notably Mozambique. Its heft now is really because of the participation of India and Nigeria, and a whole host of small and large successful countries, including Singapore, Malaysia, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and so on. It consists of very large countries and small countries.

British people, or those who care about this kind of stuff, like the organisation. I suspect to them it represents British heritage. But to those outside and even those inside, the Commonwealth’s reason for being is unfathomable, except that it’s kinda fun to be part of such a large, unusual group. This is not the hyper power-aware Group of Six or even the power-aspirant Group of 20, or even the ideological Non-aligned Movement. It’s just a group that happens to have existed and nobody can really work out very clearly what it does.

Except if you look carefully, it is a reflection of some great enlightened ideas, most importantly liberal politics and free trade. The powerhouse countries of the Commonwealth, notably Canada and Australia, and to an extent SA, really built themselves as countries by being members of the British Commonwealth (as it was then), which for a long time entitled members to free or free-ish trade within the organisation and gave the relatively new countries access to important markets.

For small countries, particularly the many islands, it was then, and remains, crucial for economic reasons.

PRINCE PHILIP ASKED WITH A BRIGHT SMILE WHETHER I WAS MOVING IN. I TOLD HIM IT WOULD JUST BE FOR A FEW MONTHS

Historically, the Commonwealth served as a platform for the expansion of free trade and other crucial enlightenment ideas, and those ideas have gradually become the norm now, particularly importantly spreading from Hong Kong to China as communism imploded in the late 1980s.

For the UK, the relationship with the Commonwealth was always propriety, but with Brexit the boot might be on the other foot. British diplomats are now desperately wondering what to do if Europe becomes less accessible for British goods and particularly services, and the natural inclination is to try and reinvigorate the old Commonwealth ties.

Ramaphosa was lauded at the 2018 meeting, and for reasons both immediate and historic it was a smart place to launch his new $100bn investment drive.

He inevitably took some flak from SA’s increasingly intolerant and shrill commentariat for being feted at the meeting, but he ignored them, as he and we should.