The Commonwealth isn’t Tinkerbell: it won’t die if the director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies doesn’t believe in it

The Commonwealth isn’t Tinkerbell: it won’t die if the director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies doesn’t believe in it

The director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies (ICWS), Professor Philip Murphy, writes about his new book, The Empire’s New Clothes, the Myth of the Commonwealth, which was published by Hurst in April. It was a rare example of a Baldrick-style ‘cunning plan’...
The empire of sentiment: a lesson in myth emotion and the abiding legacy of arrogant paternalism

The empire of sentiment: a lesson in myth emotion and the abiding legacy of arrogant paternalism

Because of his ‘ubiquity in the media and his bombastic, bullying buffoonery’ it is easy to take pot shots at Boris Johnson, says Professor Keith Somerville. However, he will not let this ease of task put him off his aim to use the foreign secretary’s highly...