Oh, and thanks for the links, everyone. Time to do a bit of reading.
First, the USA was never in the Commonwealth. Second, yes, do invite the USA to the Commonwealth. We could use some more economic puppets.
In the USA, the term for such people is “chickenhawks”.
Aw, but don’t you just love Kipling?
Evidently, you have no idea how the gubmint works. To this day, the US State Department is as free with visas from Middle East countries as they were before the attack on NYC. Evidently, it seems that career diplomats are in charge of that program, and it would make too many waves to shut it down.
Indeed, the only people who seem to be having a harder time getting in are those with a legitimate reason to be here.
I haven’t actually read much Kipling. 
But I’ve been digging into the history of my family, and since we originated in England, and inevitably I’m coming up against the British Empire.
Seeing London a few years ago was a shock as well. I’m so used to living in a place that is essentially new, that seeing and feeling the roots of my family and culture was completely new.
I’m about halfway through qts’ third link, which to my delight turned out to be James C Bennett’s original “Anglospere Primer” article! What Bennett describes is far different than the kind of semi-fearful inward withdrawl and blindly-arrogant, soon-to-be-resented rule implied by the Toronto Star article; he describes a loose networked colalition of like-minded and similarly-cultured peoples, which welcomes people of every stripe. He says that the key to the informal Anglosphere’s success so far is a strong ‘civil society’, which lays the structures within which diversity and capitalism can thrive, and he draws connections to England’s history to explain why England developed this civil society. That’s as far as I’ve read.
Congrats on being named a mod, MrThompson.
Argentines speak Spanish, btw.
Spanish in Argentinia.
English in the Falklands, I believe, as it is British Territory.
True. I was noting that U.S. loyalties in the Falklands dispute were with fellow anglophones.
Argentina does have some strong historical and cultural ties to England, I believe, and preserves many British customs such as teas and cricket clubs. At least this is what I’ve read, and I’ll yield the floor to anyone with more expertise.
Yes Britain did have very strong cultural ties to Argentina born out of the huge investment by Britain and British firms in the early 20th century. Also Argentina used to have a small Welsh-speaking population in Patagonia (though I hear the language has died out there now, but I do know that their is an Argentinian soccer team with a welsh name) who were descended from welsh settlers.
I think there are some pretty old cricket clubs in Argentina, but the sport is not that widely played, however Rugby union is played quite alot out there but of course in Argentina soccer predominates.
From my little experience on this issue, what I’ve read about it, the people on the actual islands wanted the British to stay in control.
Erek
The problem with the Anglosphere is that it’s predominantly “white” nations (yeah, I realise the UK and the US are very mixed, but generally speaking it’s caucasian-origin races).
So having immigration policies based on that hearks(? harks?) back to now much-reviled things the “White Australia” policy.
Despite this, English fluency is a major point requirement in Australian migration, so effectively there is bias in favour of the Anglosphere.
Bizarrely, when filling out migration forms, there is no actual box or way to tick: “yes, I am a native English speaker”. They ask for proof of your English ability. To get my fluency points, I submitted a second document citing my birth certificate (English speaking country, ie England!!), my degreee (English Language and Literature from English speaking University in England) and my job (English language journalism for English language publications and broadcasters).
Seemed to do the trick. One little box marked “Anglosphere? Y/N” would have been a whole lot easier though…
English influence in Argentina was very important, particularly ate the turn of the century (20, of course). Sports is the best exxample: Football, Rugby and Polo soon become very popular in Argentina, of course eventually we kicked english butt in all of them (in fact their rugby team is better than ours).
In fact in 1933 the vicepresident of argentina Julio Roca (not to be mistaken with his father, who was president of argentina) went so far as to say that “Argentina is one of the brightest jewells in the empire crown”.
End of all my hijacks.
[am not ending your hijack]
That title is often attributed to India. Could you check if that quote is apocryphal?
http://www.dingwall.bc.ca/history/main.php3?cat=places&listing=India_1947
When I first read the title of this thread, I thought it meant to debate if there exists a tacit association amongst english speaking nations.
Then I realized, with a bit of disappointment, that it put forth the question of wether it was desirable to create or embrace such an association.
I find it alright for similar cultures to empathize. And I find it very good for people of similar principles to unite in a common cause. But to foster a power association based on more or less arbitrary cultural-ethnic similitude strikes me as a bit sinister.
Something like a language Ku-klux-klan.
in his dystopian satire THE WANTING SEED presented the world’s superpowers as RUSSPUN, CHISPUN & ENGSPUN, the Russian-, Chinese-,
& English Speaking Unions
Well, with regards to India, “one of” is dropped from the quote.