The Commonwealth Institute in Kensington….

….was once one of London’s major attractions. We had a school trip there and I thought it was fantastic – an exhibition about all the nations in the Commonwealth. But after its 1970s heyday, visitor numbers dwindled and it was eventually closed down. Pictures of kangaroos, Canadian Mounties and black people harvesting sugar cane seemed rather patronising. The world had moved on and that’s how I feel about the Commonwealth Games. Leaving aside the excruciating opening ceremony that had most English people suddenly begging for a “Yes” vote in the Scottish referendum, the Commonwealth Games is a relic of a bygone age; now rendered obsolete by geopolitical progress and the splendour of the London Olympics. So let’s remind ourselves of a time when people watched the Commonwealth Games, visited the Commonwealth Institute and two white blokes could have a No.1 hit with insulting impersonations of our Commonwealth cousins.