The Commonwealth a popular club for Republics?

I sometimes get the feeling that one reason some people in the UK want to keep the monarchy is because of the Commonwealth. The Queen appears to offer us membership of a sort of international club who share a single head of state. Except they don't:

There are 54 member states, of these 16 have the Queen as head of state, 33 members are republics and 5 members have distinct monarchs:

• the Sultan of Brunei (a country without press freedom)


• the King of Lesotho


• the Yang di-Pertuan Agong


• the King of Swaziland


• the King of Tonga (a King committed to further devolution of more royal prerogatives to Parliament)

Whilst many countries may feel it is advantageous to be seen to be part of the Commonwealth a majority of these have a Republican system of Government and others are likely to follow.