The Commonwealth and the Queen's Speech

Government, after all, is a pretty dull business. And isn't it a mistake to make it appear too dull? I think you could make the case that the queen was the architect of the commonwealth. She might well not have survived had she not intervened on two or three important occasions. Without her, i was told by a former private secretary to the queen would, in fact, have disintegrated. The commonwealthis a purely consultative organization. It has no powers over individual members at all. None of the republics would have accepted that. But it's a valuable organization because it links up people of different religions and ethnic which must be important in the modern world.