Reunify the British Empire

Great Debates
1

Idea: All of the countries, realms, territories, Crown Dependencies, British Overseas Territories, Sovereign Base Areas, patches of nowhere, etc. of which HM Elizabeth II is Queen should unify as a single country. Members of the current British Commonwealth that do not have the Queen (e.g. India) and/or countries that were formerly British territories or colonies and that are not currently Commonwealth members (e.g. Republic of Ireland, USA) could be given the option of joining, but probably will choose not to.

There would be a currency union, so there would no longer be Australian Dollars, Canadian Dollars, etc., but a single currency, which could be the current Pound Sterling but could be a brand new currency or maybe even the Euro.

National divisions (e.g. Canadian provinces and territories, Australian states and territories, constituent countries of the UK, etc.) could retain some sort of Federal or devolved jurisdiction if the people wanted to, and entire former countries, dependencies, etc. could form a single sub-national jurisdiction if they wanted to, e.g. a “Province of Jamaica”.

Citizenship laws would be unified to create a single national citizenship. Anyone holding citizenship in any of the unifying jurisdictions would automatically become a citizen of the new unified country. No-one would become a foreigner in their homeland unless they specifically applied to renounce the new citizenship. Migration laws would be unified into a single immigration zone and it would be as easy to move from New South Wales to Jersey as it currently is for a US Citizen to move from California to New Jersey. Immigrants from outside the unifying countries that have already fulfilled the requirements to immigrate to one of the unifying countries (e.g. Landed Immigrant status in Canada, Leave to Remain in the UK, settlement in the UK on the basis of Irish Citizenship) would be grandfathered in and granted immigrant status in the new country. New immigrants would have to fulfill the immigration requirements of the unified country.

Good idea? Bad idea? What kind of economic, cultural, political, or diplomatic effects do you think this would have? Would the movement for Quebec independence finally reach critical mass?

2

And will all of these countries be represented in the Westminster Parliament? Or in a new and separate Imperial Parliament? Or what?

3

Bad idea, or at least hugely, impossibly impractical idea at this point in history. The European Union is having trouble enough at the moment, and its member states are far more similar than all the former British colonies. Just think: India and Pakistan becoming one country again? Never mind that there’s very little desire to do this anywhere. What would be the point?

4

Better idea - when the Queen dies, don’t crown a new monarch. Just … let it go.

5

I would expect the Canadian, Australian, Jamaican heads of state would go “HAHAHA ! Yeah, thanks but… no, thanks. Care for a bikkit ?” at the idea of being subjected to the rule and oversight of a distant “foreign” power, regardless of history.

But y’know, feel free to air it out, run for election on it, you never know.

6

That’s kinda my sentiment on it - a good opportunity for Canada to become a republic. It’s not a super-high priority for me, though, and I can see some value in a powerless monarchy, i.e. a position of highest authority exists but is entirely ceremonial, taking up the space that might be filled by someone who wants to have highest authority and power.

7

Are you expecting her to say it once for each of those countries?

Personally, I wouldn’t mind seeing that. Hopefully she’ll attempt the appropriate accents, too.

8

Been there, done that. I’d assume if all of those people wanted to be governed from London, they would have chosen to keep things the way they were.

9

For the record, here are the Commonwealth Realms. This list is ranked by population and shows how many MP’s they would have in the expanded House of Commons.

The United Kingdom - 62,040,000 - 650
Canada - 34,020,000 - 356
Australia - 23,250,000 - 264
Papua New Guinea - 6,860,000 - 72
New Zealand - 4,370,000 - 46
Jamaica - 2,740,000 - 29
Solomon Islands - 540,000 - 6
The Bahamas - 340,000 - 4
Belize - 310,000 - 3
Barbados - 270,000 - 3
Saint Lucia - 170,000 - 2
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines - 110,000 - 1
Grenada - 100,000 - 1
Antigua and Barbuda - 90,000 - 1
Saint Kitts and Nevis - 50,000 - 1
Tuvalu - 10,000 - 1

Total - 135,270,000 - 1440

10

Waitaminnit, where’s India? India is still a Commonwealth member, isn’t it?

11

That would be one of the problems. Let’s assume that there is a Commonwealth Parliament, meeting at Westminster. If the constituencies have all roughly the same population, then more than half would be in India (so perhaps it should meet in New Delhi, even though that would upset the Pakistanis). If it had 650 members – the size of the UK House of Commons – then just 18 would come from the United Kingdom.

ETA: I think Little Nemo’s list is just those where Elizabeth II is the monarch.

12

At least don’t bother to change the money. No one wants coins and bills with Charlie’s ugly mug on them.

13

No. Definitely not if India is invited. I have no desire to see another hundred million people subjected to Indian law. Our own bigots are quite bad enough.

14

Why on earth would Canada want to unify with such a motley array of inferior countries?

15

It’s a member, but not a realm (it’s a republic) as QEII is not their head of state. I think OP wanted to restrict the new nation to those where she is.

16

Well, if you are going to go that far - let’s add in the post-Ottoman British Mandates and let the new empire clean up the mess they created. Perhaps the French could also reclaim responsibilities for cleaning up their former mandate as well.

17

And who would exercise her constitutional duties, and under what authority?

18

I think the “Anglosphere Economic Zone” makes more sense. Basically:

UK
US
Canada
Australia
NZ
Ireland (maybe)

I’m not sure what value all those little Pacific and Caribbean Islands would add.

19

That’s Her Majesty, you know.

20

I was talking about the actual heads of state. The ones that do stuff and have actual local power (decision-making or otherwise) beyond hand-waving, smiling and wearing the weirdest hats this side of the Pope.