Where’s…

…the muscle?
They came, they saw, and they yawned!! Your Eyewitness is talking about the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting – CHOGM 2026 – that just concluded in Antigua!! Billed as the second largest international organisation after the United Nations – with 56 nations as members – your Eyewitness would (hopefully!) be forgiven for feeling as if someone threw a big party and nobody showed up!!
Now your Eyewitness doesn’t mean that literally – but he was hoping that with a whole new world order being created with America moving vigorously to take on China to maintain its old Top Gun billing, some nation or nations in the Commonwealth would’ve seized the opportunity to spread their wings!! After all, there were 56 national leaders with (willing?) ears to open to blandishments of that type!! But the leader of the most likely prospect – Modi of India – chose to not even attend!! Guess he’s too taken up dealing with the “cockroach” protests led by restive youths!!
The Commonwealth was a last-ditch effort of Britain to have its cake and eat it too – it was forced to give independence to its colonies after WWII had drained it of the necessary energy – and money!! – to keep the Empire going!! It was gonna be a gathering of all the old colonies united in the culture the Brits had kindly imparted to them after centuries of slavery and indentureship!! Boasting about the “democratic” credentials they’d imbibed, they’d be a shining city on the hill – so to speak – to the rest of the world!!
The lamb would be lying down with the lion as the erstwhile ruler – the monarchy – would be rubbing shoulders with the old subjects!! Initially, as implied above, the Brits probably figured they’d be the not-so-invisible hand guiding the organisation to serve its flagging international libido!!  But sadly, after an initial burst of activity in the 70s – dealing mostly with some nettlesome issues in Africa like apartheid in South Africa – the organisation seemed to’ve lost whatever mojo it had – or aspired to!!
That, of course, coincided with Britain’s own economic travails that saw it becoming quite Third World itself!! But that’s exactly why your Eyewitness thought a country like India – with a billion-plus population – and most importantly passing Britain on the economic sweepstakes – would’ve seized the opportunity to use the Commonwealth to achieve the “world power” status it craved!! The other member countries would certainly support it since their stature would be accordingly lifted up!!
So what’s the problem?? Frankly, it seems that the Brits might’ve succeeded in their colonial mission to convince Indians they and their country were second rate – and they just don’t have what it takes to reach the top rung!!
So, in the meantime, let’s enjoy our cricketing ties!!

…the LOO’s programme?
Domestically, another person who your Eyewitness thought lost his mojo was the old LOO – Norton – after he’d clawed his way to the top of the PNC heap!! He just wasn’t creative enough to change his modus operandi and move away from the old rigging culture and get with the youth – who represent the future of all political organisations!! As the Good Book says, old men would dream dreams, but young men would have visions – of what the future could be!!
So, we saw the LOO’s crown snatched from his head by a rank outsider going by the moniker of Sanction Man – who signalled his newness by outsized dark designer shades – rather than the old-time scroll embossed with a doctorate!! But to everyone’s surprise – including your Eyewitness! – the new LOO’s order didn’t stop with the dark shades – it extended into rejecting crafting better programmes than the government’s and suchlike!!
And playing fast and loose with the law to be in the news!!
Outlaw politics??

…the stability??
Charles III alluded to all the Prime Ministers at the CHOGM – and slyly remarked it reminded him of home!! He was taking a dig at the seven PMs Britain had in the last decade!!
A bit Third Worldish, innit??