Write to letters@thetimes.co.ukSir, Trevor Phillips is right that the dreadful conflict in the Middle East should be at the heart of the Commonwealth’s concerns (“It’s time the Commonwealth showed its clout”, Oct 19) but wrong that no country in that region with a former constitutional association with the UK has tried to join. Alongside Yemen (before its descent into civil war), Palestine sought membership at the 1997 summit. Its historical association with the Commonwealth was recognised and its interest in membership welcomed but it was decided that its application should be paused pending state sovereignty. Sadly, subsequent summits ignored the increasingly difficult, and now unbearably tragic, position of Palestine but Commonwealth leaders meeting in Samoa this week have the opportunity to put
