An ever-expanding club of (mostly) ex-British colonies needs to develop sharper edges or else shut up shop

BRITAIN’S empire, in the sense of overseas territories under United Kingdom sovereignty, has shrunk and shrunk: it now consists of just 14 islands, rocks and barely inhabited strips of land, the biggest of them in Antarctica. Meanwhile, the body that emerged from the empire 60 years ago, the Commonwealth, risks the opposite: growing so large, loose and floppy that it merges with the rest of humanity.

Its 53 countries already represent a fifth of earth’s land area and nearly a third of the human race; their leaders, or most of them, were due to converge in Trinidad on November 27th—with many of their staff staying on two cruise ships, looming over Port of Spain’s waterfront. Just over half the Commonwealth’s 2 billion people are Indian; but awkwardly, a poll of seven Commonwealth countries, including India, found that only a third of respondents could name something the body did. …