King Charles has extended a potential offer of Commonwealth of Nations membership to the United States.
I oppose it for many reasons.
Limited benefits
What exactly is the Commonwealth of Nations? It’s a loose forum of former British colonies and the United Kingdom.
There are no travel benefits to being a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. Everyone except Americans needs a visa to travel to Canada; Australians and Kiwis are the only nationalities that do not need a visa to travel to Australia and New Zealand. It is not an open border treaty or even a visa-free travel zone. There is no travel benefit to commonwealth membership.
It is not a free trade area.
Commonwealth citizens who live in the United Kingdom can vote in British elections and in a few other countries.
A few commonwealth nations offer preferential citizenship acquisition.
If we don’t have an embassy in a country but the British do, we could then use the British embassy. This is not an issue for Americans since we have relations with almost every country on Earth.
So, unless you are actively traveling in a country where the US does not have an embassy and the UK does, or if you live in a country that allows other Commonwealth citizens to vote, you likely will see no benefit from Commonwealth membership.
Optics
Keir Starmer has supported Brexit from the beginning. Over the last decade, it has become clear that the lauded “Brexit benefits” Labour and the Tories were going on about have never transpired. Instead, like every other third country, the United Kingdom now has tariffs with the European Union. They have lost the ability to travel freely around the European Union and the Schengen Area. It is no longer possible for a British citizen to live in Greece or Spain without bureaucratic paperwork.
I hope you enjoy cold rain if you supported Brexit!
Starmer, UKIP, and the Tories are grasping for some big story to make Brexit “worth it,” and they are failing. Staying out of the European Union has not led in the polls since 2023, and that one poll was a fluke. The last time staying out of the European Union consistently got 50% of the respondents in a poll was in 2022, and as time goes on, the trend is clear. Rejoining has a consistent 10-point gap in the polls. If the United Kingdom had a vote to rejoin the European Union today, it would vote in favor.
Brexit is a scam.
So Starmer is trying yet again to prove that he can “make a deal” just like his buddy Donald Trump. The King is breaking tradition now and stepping into British politics by offering Trump membership in the Commonwealth. This is a distraction meant to demonstrate some sort of “Brexit benefit” in order to push down support for rejoining the European Union. It’s utterly unacceptable.
Nothing precludes the United States from joining the Commonwealth of Nations even once the United Kingdom rejoins the European Union.
While Trump is creating trade wars with every commonwealth member, this is a reward for his unacceptable behavior. It strengthens Trump in a meaningless way by giving him a “victory” in a “deal” which is the only thing he cares about. It teaches a lesson that you will be rewarded if you bully the United Kingdom. This is the wrong message and will weaken Britain substantially.
Not only that, but the Trump Administration is pressuring Starmer to repeal hate speech laws that protect LGBT people in exchange for a “deal”.
It also looks like Keir Starmer agrees with Trump on LGBT rights.
It benefits all the wrong people. This “deal” is a bludgeon by the Trump administration to force the United Kingdom further away from the European Union, to make rejoining more difficult. They are pushing laws that will harm British citizens. The laws being pushed by Labour push Britain closer to Russia and further from the European Union.
If you are English or Welsh, I implore you to vote for the Liberal Democrats and protect your democracy.
A realistic proposal
I support deepening America’s ties with other countries in meaningful ways, and the Commonwealth of Nations is just not that meaningful.
Here is a chronological list of ways to meaningfully improve the foreign relations of Canada, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
- Australia, Canada, the European Union, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States should drop eVisa/ETA requirements for each other. Go back to visa-free travel. The way to get to this is to drop the obsession with visa reciprocity and do the right thing. Perhaps implement extra screening for high-profile figures and politicians if visas are in place. I would love to see Donald Trump and Keir Starmer receive pat-downs at customs until they drop their nonsense!
- The United Kingdom needs to rejoin the European Union or at least the European Economic Area and the Schengen Area.
- The United States and Canada should implement an open border treaty.
- The United States and Canada should join the European Economic Area and the Schengen Area.
Then maybe the United States will join the Commonwealth of Nations, but no one will care.
This is an actual plan that will accomplish my goals:
- Weaken Putin. The United Kingdom’s rejoining the European Union will harm Russian money laundering in London.
- Improve trade in ways that create jobs.
- Improve the relationship between North America and Europe.
- Free flow of labor between the United States, Canada, and the European Union. This improves the economy for everyone involved.
- Free movement of people seriously weakens authoritarians like Trump.
- Save money on the United States/Canada border. Lay off customs agents at our border, we don’t need them. Let’s save taxpayers money by cutting out wasteful spending, instead of this DOGE shit.
- Implement eGates at airports, saving taxpayer money by laying off unnecessary customs agents, not this DOGE shit.
These policies will actually improve the lives of American citizens instead of meaningless optics.
News Stories
https://www.newsweek.com/us-joining-king-charles-commonwealth-2049916
https://www.thesun.co.uk/royals/33954809/charles-trump-secret-offer-kier/