The Commonwealth is at risk according to caller who says the nations are in common but the wealth is in the UK
16 September 2022, 14:42 | Updated: 16 September 2022, 14:58
James O'Brien caller says the Commonwealth is at risk as younger Caribbean generations start to question what the purpose is to having a foreign head of state.
After explaining earlier in his show that the Commonwealth "for good or for ill" "won’t survive in its current form" James O’Brien had a caller phone in to giver her opinion.
Nicola in Biggleswade called in saying she is a "third generation British Caribbean descendent".
"I do think there will be change and I don't think it is necessarily just because the Queen is no longer reigning," she started, "because Barbados made changes while the Queen was still alive.
"And I think that is just the start of a conversation that is going to be had more widely in the Caribbean."
This caller says the Commonwealth is at risk as the younger Caribbean generation starts to ask: ‘What purpose is there having a head of state overseas in a country that has actively discouraged them from coming there?’
— LBC (@LBC) September 16, 2022
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She went on to acknowledge the younger generations in the Caribbean that have less connection with the Monarch saying they have "serious questions that need to be answered".
The caller proposed they'd ask:"What purpose there is having their head of state be this foreign body from overseas in a country that has actively discouraged them coming there. It doesn't make any sense."
James agreed saying, "No it doesn't does it".
"It makes sense to people of my grandma's generation who came over with a blue passport, who love the Queen," the caller recognised but said "that generation is dying out."
She continued: "My husband often refers to the commonwealth as 'The nations that are common and the wealth in the UK'. There is absolutely no benefit to them [commonwealth countries]
"The United States has an open door policy for the Caribbean, so does Canada."
In shock James responded: "And we don't, I didn't know that."
James O'Brien concluded the call saying: "The way you describe it, it is inevitable. The only question is why it hasn't happened sooner."
