Does anyone still care about the Commonwealth? writes James Hanson

Let’s start with the games. Where once they were a genuine sporting spectacle, they’re now fading into irrelevance. This year’s event has been significantly scaled back, with just 10 sports taking place over seven venues and no athletes’ village. And for the first time in more than 50 years, they won’t even be shown on terrestrial TV, with coverage moving from the BBC to the paid subscription service TNT Sports.

Even finding a host city has proved difficult. This year’s games were originally meant to take place in Victoria, before the Australian state’s government pulled out in 2023 due to escalating costs. The city of Gold Coast in Queensland briefly offered to step in, but later withdrew for similar reasons. As such, it appeared for a time as if the 2026 event would be postponed or cancelled completely, until Glasgow saved the day by offering to host a scaled-back version.

Three of the last four games have now taken place in the UK. Although the Indian city of Ahmedabad is scheduled to host in 2030, it appears there just isn’t the demand to stage them anymore. Honestly, can anyone claim to be surprised? In a summer in which we’re already blessed with so much elite sport to savour, how can the Commonwealth Games hope to compete for attention alongside the World Cup, Wimbledon, the Tour de France, international cricket, Formula 1, the Open Championship… I could go on.

But it’s not just the games themselves that are fighting to stay relevant. The very concept of the Commonwealth appears increasingly outdated to many. At best, it’s seen by the world as a quaint anachronism. At worst, it plays into a sense that Britain can’t quite relinquish its imperial past.

The Commonwealth as an institution was beloved of the late Queen, but perhaps that says it all. It had relevance in the immediate post-war era when she came to the throne, because nations’ memories of gaining independence from Britain were still fresh. But now we’re into the second quarter of the 21st century, does our shared history still carry the same resonance?

To the extent it still gets cited, it’s usually in the context of Commonwealth countries demanding slavery reparations. Personally, I’ve always been opposed to such calls, but surely they’re harder to ignore if we insist the very same countries turn up for an increasingly pointless quadrennial sporting jamboree?

Once upon a time I used to love the Commonwealth Games. I’d watch them on TV and cheer on England with interest. This year, they’ve barely made it onto my radar. I suspect there’ll be many who aren’t even aware they’re taking place at all. So perhaps we should ask ourselves a more fundamental question about the future of the Commonwealth and whether it’s still needed. Of course we should maintain friendly relations with its members, but does anyone still care about the institution itself?

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