Why is Hague championing an enhanced Commonwealth?

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Conservative Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague is going to speak today championing an enhanced role and the possible expansion of the Commonwealth, a story which the BBC covers.

Its a striking statement. I don't doubt that as a cultural and economic bloc the Commonwealth is covered as sparingly as it is considered by the public.

At first it seems a strangely old fashioned rallying call. My first impression was of course that it is a natural conservative instinct to hark to what they perceive as better days. It is in the conservative nature to remember the past generously.

But two other reasons strike me:

One, that Britain, having previously seemed a prime beneficiary of globalisation until the financial crisis broke, now looks to be one of its chief victims as the collapse of our financial sector sucks the heart out of our economic prowess and our relative import on the international stage. Britain may be coming to terms with this as a short term state of affairs, but our new situation may well last for a very long time. After all, the city may not recover and finance certainly can't sustainably return to the good old days.

In short Britain may face a crisis of identity which would mirror the character (if not quite the scale) of that which followed Britain's collapse as a great power. Thatcher was credited with helping Britain carve a renewed unashamed pride into British national identity. Hague, a close student of Thatcher, may see his party's chance to emulate their previous performance by harking to influence and significance greater than that which Britain actually possesses.

Secondly, and more immediately in light of the World Economic Forum which wraps up this week in Davos, William Hague may be attempting to mark out Britain's economic territory if the world suffers stunted globalisation, renewed protectionism and diminished multipolarity. These things are not certain, but they are possible and I believe Hague would be careless not to keep such possibilities in mind as he is likely to help lead the next Government.

Could this be the beginning of the British drawback from globalisation to a rump of an old trading bloc that makes more cultural and economic sense to the Conservative party than the British public? Pessimistic, but not inconceivable.

UPDATE: Illuminating set of quotes from the speech at Conservative Home