The UK has soft power, and should use it at these times

The outpouring of affection for the late Queen Elizabeth II has come from across these island and around the world.

Is there a country on earth that has such cultural reach and appeal? America, for example, is a far richer nation and produces films and television that attract unparalleled global audiences. But UK is only a fifth of the size of the United States in terms of population yet for decades has punched far above its weight in matters from acting to pop music.

The British royal history is one that generates fascination around the world, hence the huge global audiences when Princess Diana died. In London, vast numbers of people are laying flowers in memory to the late Queen or even, if they have stamina, enduring queues of many hours to see the Her Majesty lying in state.

It might seem petty, amidst all this, to talk about invitations to her funeral. But it is hard not to marvel at some of the inconsistencies that the organisers of such an event allow. For example, that Sinn Fein, a party that is increasingly triumphalist about the IRA’s long campaign of sectarian murder and mayhem, including targeting royals for murder and never apologising for such hatred, is invited to the Queen’s funeral, and Jim Allister MLA, a long-standing royalist and elected supporter of the Union, is not. It is also striking that a brutally repressive nation such as China should get such an invite.

When Prince William and Kate Middleton were married, some rogue states did not get invites for their ambassadors. Such gestures might seem small, but they do trouble countries. And however tempting it might be to cosy up to China, its treatment of the Uighurs and its dismantling of Hong Kong’s democratic freedoms should alone bar it from invites to Britain’s most prominent state occasions.

The UK has huge soft power, and it should use it.