There is an undiscussed British angle to Australia's vote on the monarchy this weekend. It is that the British, and even the English, are totally indifferent. They are as distant from Sydney as Sydney is from London. They aren't republicans themselves, but if Australia goes that way, not a single tear will be shed. There will be no sense of sundering, because there's so little sense of our still being one people, about to be cut apart.
Life moves on.
National interests have diverged, along with trading patterns and geopolitical relationships. The bonds of descent, language and culture aren't obliterated, and no one would argue that they should be. Two-way migration has been fruitful for both countries, especially this one. But the romance of a special relationship has disappeared as comprehensively in the power world as on the rugby field. Sentiment, as we will see at Cardiff, ceases to favour the sons of empire, because we finally understand how little that lineage now matters.