Birmingham City Council Chamber, on 17 January, saw the first of a series of exciting debates on the Commonwealth and the UK’s role. Promoted by the Round Table, the authoritative Commonwealth journal of international affairs, it brought students and new generations alive to an association with people-to-people links praised by statesmen from Winston Churchill to Robin Cook as crucial to the UK’s world role.
Working with student unions, academics and other interested parties the Round Table wants to challenge received opinion about the Commonwealth in the run-up to the Commonwealth Games in Queensland and the Commonwealth summit in London, in April 2018. The motion had been: “This House believes that the Commonwealth prevents the UK from moving on from the past and dealing with the future.”
You can read the outcome of the debate, written by one of the student journalist participants.
The second debate took place on 26 January in Exeter. Round Table’s Stuart Mole summarised the event in which the participants debated the motion “This House believes the Commonwealth has no place in the modern world”.
More debates will follow at London University Senate House, in Belfast, Cambridge, and Nottingham (12 March, Commonwealth Day). Details of these debates will be posted on our Events page.
[Note: This page was updated on 2 February, 2018]
