This is turning into one of the most subversive and colorful patriotic campaigns ever.
And it's really chapping the knickers off of the pissy, prissy 'minders' who keep an eye on everyone and tell them how to behave.
As the fellow in the video asks, 'Is there something I've not been told? Has the Third Reich suddenly surfaced in the bowels of the town hall?' as the pedantic city council member corrects his usage that it's a Union flag, not a 'jack.'
And it doesn't matter because he's not allowed to fly it anyway.
Minder: Ahead of its time, or have we been in the shit for a lot longer than we thought? #raisethecolours 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/zJk15nePaE
— Liam Tuffs (@liamtuffs1) August 25, 2025
The Birmingham City Council started this war on national ensigns about the same time that ladies in pink started appearing outside of so-called 'migrant hotels' plopped down in the midst of their quiet little cities all over Britain, and dared Keir Starmer's Labor government to paint them as violent 'right-wing' thugs.
The Union Jack and St George's Cross flags attached to lamp posts, which had been accused of posing a driving hazard but had actually offended the Birmingham Council's woke sensibilities, were pulled down by city crews.
Regular folks were a little peeved.
I keep seeing videos of brainwashed Britain-hating leftists taking down UK flags, councils taking down flags, people calling the police to say they feel "alarm and distress" at seeing our flags.
— Lee Harris (@addicted2newz) August 24, 2025
There is a solution to this...
We need to put up EVEN MORE flags.#Raisethecolours pic.twitter.com/2BA1H3bnit
And like mushrooms spreading little patriotic spores, suddenly, flags are popping up everywhere.
They even have a theme: #raisethecolours
The British have finally caught a fever.
A distinction has been made for some time in politically disgruntled circles, both here and abroad, between the nation and the state, the former identified with the beloved place, culture, people and history, the latter with the maddening mess of bureaucrats, officials, policy and mismanagement.
It’s an observation that grumblers – among whose ranks I’d estimate many Gript readers are included – will identify some truth in. As long as the workings of the state are perceived to be doing damage to the fabric of the nation, it’s a gulf that will only continue to grow, delegitimising the state among no small number of people and provoking protest and subversive behaviour on stated behalf of the nation.
One of the starkest demonstrations of this distinction taking root and developing in the consciousness of a people that I’ve seen thus far is currently playing out in the UK, where ‘Operation Raise the Colours’ is well underway across vast swathes of England, Scotland and Wales, with Northern Ireland continuing to operate instead according to its own, particular logic.
🚨 Across the country, patriots are now taking part in Operation Raise The Colours 🇬🇧🏴
— CitizenGO UK (@CitizenGO_GB) August 20, 2025
👉 For years, the English flag was branded “racist” or “divisive.” Now people are reclaiming it with pride and unity 👏 pic.twitter.com/KkHy0SfdRm
And if your mates don't show up to help, it seems folks eating out will buy you lunch and pints to make sure you've the stamina to keep going.
Unbelievable amount of support for #raisethecolours #RaiseTheFlag in Nottingham. I was flying solo today but no end of help and free pints if I wanted them.
— Tony (@EvacTony) August 25, 2025
Free pints and ladders don't mix 💥. Have a great bank holiday folks. 👍🏻 #UTK see you on the 13th. pic.twitter.com/YzQiywGUZ7
It's a scrum in other places to put a flag up.
Police tried to stop him from climbing that ladder.
— Surveillance Hunter (@Surveil_Hunt) August 25, 2025
Cresta Court will be English again.
#RaiseTheColourspic.twitter.com/OEXDWe21uT
Some of them go all out.
Currently 2 miles of English flags up in South Oxhey, Watford 🏴 #raisethecolours@Sargon_of_Akkad @AndySaxon78 pic.twitter.com/bEnxlVs7pP
— John King (@johnkingshares) August 25, 2025
You know this has the opposition seething. How dare the knuckledragging heathens cause them this distress and intimidation?
FLAG WARS HAVE ERUPTED ACROSS LONDON
...Hundreds of flags have sprung up in towns and cities across the country, many flying from lampposts, as part of a campaign called "Operation Raise the Colours."
The St George's cross has even been painted on mini-roundabouts in Birmingham as the movement continues to grow.
A council leader has said that some residents have been left feeling "intimidated" by the appearance of Union Jack and St George's flags.
Hundreds of flags have sprung up in towns and cities across the country, many flying from lampposts, as part of a campaign called "Operation Raise the Colours."
The St George's cross has even been painted on mini-roundabouts in Birmingham as the movement continues to grow.
One group who are behind the display of flags on lampposts in the Weoley Castle area of Birmingham, say they are patriotic, describing themselves as "proud Englishmen with a common goal".
Leader of Liberal Democrat-run Dorset Council, Councillor Nick Ireland said while the movement was "an explosion of patriotism", he claimed the flags have been used as symbols for "far-right political movements" - which had left some residents feeling "intimidated".
"It would be naive to pretend otherwise that the St George's flag has been co-opted by certain far-right groups to promote their agendas," he told the BBC.
So in some instances, raising the colours has turned out to be potentially hazardous to one's health, as most things which upset a specific subset of society tend to be.
One of the flag raisers had a Molotov cocktail flung at him by an anti-St George's flag type.
The man who says he was firebombed after putting up St George's flags in his hometown feared it was an acid attack and that he was going to be left blind.
Louis Turvey, 33, told police he was struck by the flaming object in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, as he and a group of others were hanging St George's flags on lampposts and poles just after midnight on Saturday.
Distressing footage showed him looking shocked and standing with blood running down his face and hands as he awaited emergency services.
It was his first time ever putting up flags and he had organised the group online with people he didn't know.
For years the silent majority have put up with foreign flags or pride flags flying over public buildings in the UK
— Frank Stephens (@justrightFrank) August 24, 2025
So people are hanging our national flags in response.
What sort of thug fire bombs ordinary people for raising British flags in Britain?https://t.co/zklUoAN6Dr
It's tragic that the Left can't play nice, ever, but that's how it is.
And as if on cue, squish politicians are quick to say the flags are only coming out to force a 'confrontation.'
There couldn't possibly be any other reason, ignoring the 'great, hideous toad squatting over the nation.'
...“I don’t think you need to start going out painting your community, you can obviously display a flag if that’s your choice but I don’t know, I do wonder about the times we’re living in,” he said.
“It’s like people are seeking confrontation.”
While a great many people around the world, and no less here, would agree with the characterisation of the Union Jack and St George’s flags as “contentious,” in the domestic context, it naturally raises interesting questions about why, in England, the national flags of other nations’, namely Ukraine and Palestine, have been allowed to fly unfettered for years now. It is a scenario that feeds back into that dynamic with which this article began, the idea – as one X user memorably put it – that the state is as a “great hideous toad squatting over” the nation, suffocating the life out of it.
The aggressively repressive approach the British state is taking to its own citizens – locking up the (recently freed) Lucy Connolly for an outraged tweet sent in the wake of the Southport stabbings, running over protestors outside of migrant hotels, charging people for praying silently in the streets near abortion clinics – is nothing but fuel to a disassociative fire, of which simply the latest manifestation is the flag fever gripping the nation.
The repression.
🚨 INTERVIEW: Lucy Connolly’s first interview: I was Starmer’s political prisoner
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) August 22, 2025
Lucy Connolly speaks exclusively to @AllisonPearson, the Telegraph journalist who led the campaign for her release
Watch the full interview below 👇https://t.co/ajVYtYZB0f pic.twitter.com/ecyiOd8jLg
The weight of the 'hideous toad' of repression has become too much to bear.
"There'll always be an England
— William Fotheringham-Bray (@WillReformUK) August 24, 2025
And England shall be free
If England means as much to you
As England means to me"#raisethecolours pic.twitter.com/9nFJwvAAX4
They have no clue how lucky they are that it's only flags.
So far.
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