Editing Andrew MacKinlay (section)

===Ireland and the Commonwealth===

MacKinlay argued that initiatives should be taken to encourage [[Ireland (state)|Ireland]] to participate in the [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]].<ref name="auto">24 July 2007: Column 238WH – Ireland and the Commonwealth</ref> He brought forward a motion on the issue in the House of Commons.<ref name="auto"/> Ireland had participated in the Commonwealth in the 1930s and 40s. Mackinlay's view was that historians were wrong to say that Ireland had left the Commonwealth in 1949.<ref name="auto"/> This was, he said, because the Commonwealth, to the extent that it existed, was nothing like the Commonwealth of today.<ref name="auto"/> He felt that the [[London Declaration]] formula that permitted republics to participate in the Commonwealth had not been offered to Ireland as an option, though he felt it was not too late to do so. He argued that Ireland should be formally invited to join and that the Commonwealth was its "natural place".<ref name="auto"/>