English
A royal salute to the Commonwealth
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Analysis made by Maria Thygesen
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In the article “A royal salute to the Commonwealth” by Peter Oborne, which serves as a personal commentary on how the British Duke and Duchess visits Canada, he is very content on pointing out that it is important for UK to maintain a good relationship to the other Commonwealth-countries - partly because these countries have a joint history and partly share various values. Lastly, Oborne sees the Commonwealth as the future while the US and European Union will face crisis in the near future.
The main stance in Peter Obornes text is that in the last 20 years, the UK leaders have neglected their duties towards the Commonwealth-union. This has somewhat to do with the ever-changing Labour government with Tony Blair and Gordon Brown leading the way, but also former leaders have failed to give the commonwealth the attention it needs and seen how big an influence it could attain. In the article Oborne also talks about the imperial time, “For many years it has been automatic in progressive circles to sneer at the Commonwealth as a meaningless relic of our imperial past” (p. 1, ll. 19.20). By this it is meant that in the past, UK-leaders had thought of the Commonwealth as an oppressive and actually hostile state institution. His argumentation in the text consists of using both negative and positive words to describe the politicians and their actions. His words contribute to setting them in a bad light and among other things he says; ”New Labour, with its hatred of British history, symbolized this attitude” (ll. 20-21) and “…the Commonwealth never fitted into New Labour’s relentless modernizing vision. Blair regarded traditional British values and identities as xenophobic, if not racist” (ll. 23-25). His opinion; the carelessness towards the joint countries and their union, is much better
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Analysis made by Maria Thygesen
-------------------------------------------------
In the article “A royal salute to the Commonwealth” by Peter Oborne, which serves as a personal commentary on how the British Duke and Duchess visits Canada, he is very content on pointing out that it is important for UK to maintain a good relationship to the other Commonwealth-countries - partly because these countries have a joint history and partly share various values. Lastly, Oborne sees the Commonwealth as the future while the US and European Union will face crisis in the near future.
The main stance in Peter Obornes text is that in the last 20 years, the UK leaders have neglected their duties towards the Commonwealth-union. This has somewhat to do with the ever-changing Labour government with Tony Blair and Gordon Brown leading the way, but also former leaders have failed to give the commonwealth the attention it needs and seen how big an influence it could attain. In the article Oborne also talks about the imperial time, “For many years it has been automatic in progressive circles to sneer at the Commonwealth as a meaningless relic of our imperial past” (p. 1, ll. 19.20). By this it is meant that in the past, UK-leaders had thought of the Commonwealth as an oppressive and actually hostile state institution. His argumentation in the text consists of using both negative and positive words to describe the politicians and their actions. His words contribute to setting them in a bad light and among other things he says; ”New Labour, with its hatred of British history, symbolized this attitude” (ll. 20-21) and “…the Commonwealth never fitted into New Labour’s relentless modernizing vision. Blair regarded traditional British values and identities as xenophobic, if not racist” (ll. 23-25). His opinion; the carelessness towards the joint countries and their union, is much better