Operation Raise the Colours: Flying the national flag has become an act of rebellion

A significant controversy has erupted across England, with residents defiantly raising the St George’s Cross flag in a grassroots movement dubbed “Operation Raise the Colours,” which has been met with swift removal by left-wing local councils citing public safety and maintenance concerns.

This act of civil disobedience, framed by its supporters as a patriotic response to mass immigration and national decline, has intensified a broader culture war over national identity, with critics accusing the movement of promoting “far-right” ideologies.

But the criticism is falling on deaf ears as “Operation Raise the Colours” spreads to Scotland and Wales.

The “Operation Raise the Colours” campaign, driven by social media, involves citizens across cities like Birmingham, London, Manchester and Newcastle hanging St George’s flags and even painting red crosses on roundabouts or pedestrian crossings as a form of protest.

This surge in flag-raising follows weeks of street protests against the government’s policy of housing illegal migrants in hotels, with opponents stating it is a threat to local women and girls.

Left-wing councils, including those in Birmingham and Tower Hamlets, have actively removed the flags from public fixtures, often under the pretext of public safety or infrastructure maintenance.

Critics, including Conservative MP Robert Jenrick, point to a stark double standard, noting that Palestinian flags were left up for over a year in Birmingham before being removed only after complaints from Jewish residents, while English flags are swiftly taken down.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has refrained from criticising the movement, with his spokesman highlighting the government’s pride in Britishness and noting the display of English flags at Downing Street during football matches. (ER: LOL)

The movement faces strong opposition from figures like radical Black Studies Professor and activist Kehinde Andrews, who labels the St George’s Cross a symbol of “white supremacy” and calls for a new national flag.

Here’s what non-politicians, non-far-left activists have to say.

Blaze Media: Why the English flag now terrifies the regime

The UK’s leadership often appears actively hostile to its majority people. Immigrants refuse to assimilate, demand special treatment, show open contempt for the English, and commit horrific acts of violence – yet the government welcomes more boatloads. Social media is censored to shield newcomers from offence. Protests are suppressed. In a regime that sacrifices free speech for “multiculturalism,” flying the English flag has become an act of rebellion.

This is a clever, nonviolent protest that exposes the regime’s double standard. Every crackdown vindicates the English right to resist.

Immigrant communities have noticed. Coming from societies where ethnic solidarity is openly encouraged, they know what the St. George’s Cross means. In response, some have stripped Union Jacks from poles and replaced them with Pakistani flags.

Elites may seek to crush the English in pursuit of a multicultural utopia, but the native people refuse to yield. Protesters are jailed, flags are torn down, posts are censored – yet the banners keep going up. That stubborn spirit is dangerous to ignore. The English still know who they are. Unless their rulers recognise it soon, the conflict now symbolised by a flag will erupt into something far more serious.

Jupplandia: When Your Own National Flag is an Act of Rebellion

In the UK, having a flag of St George or a Union Jack flying from your porch (fewer of those too in the UK) or a pole in your garden was much rarer than similar displays of the US flag from American households.

The England flag primarily came out during football (soccer, to Americans) tournaments. Maybe some rugby national contests. Outside of a sporting context, it was rarely displayed, especially by officialdom. Councils and local government had no interest in flying the national flag.

Basically, in the UK, we have had a middle-class consensus (which dominates local political choices as well as national ones) that our own flag is a Bad Thing. The only people to deny this Flag Shame were white working-class communities, primarily because they hadn’t been indoctrinated at university and they knew that there was nothing wrong in patriotism and pride in your own history.  Denied so much else, this was one of the things they had left, and they were damned if they were going to give it up because some tw*t at a college was calling them names.

These flags are back, and no longer at just sporting events or just a few small working-class areas.  In a campaign of quiet rebellion, spreading throughout the country, ordinary people are putting up England flags and Union Jacks on street lights and poles. They are also painting road furniture, roundabouts and crossings with England flags. Many councils immediately try to remove these. And then people put them back again.

It’s happened in Tower Hamlets in London, an area with a very small white English population and a very high ethnic minority population. It’s happened in Birmingham, a Muslim dominated city with a very small and declining white English population. And it’s happened throughout the North and South in less than urban areas.

It is far, far below the level of rebellion really needed. But it is beautiful and good in the same way the moment that a battered wife says to herself she will leave him, and means it, is beautiful and good. The abuse could only ever have this end.

But if the abuse IS to end, so much more must happen next. You raise the flag at the start of a battle, as a standard, not at the end.

What Others Are Saying

Sources and resources:

• How councils tearing down England flags has sparked backlash across the country, Daily Mail, 19 August 2025
• Defiant Britons pledge to hang up HUNDREDS of St George’s flags in fight back against councils, GB News, 19 August 2025
• Why are St George’s flags being put up in some areas and why is it controversial? Independent, 19 August 2025
• How flying the flag became a symbol of revolt, Spiked, 20 August 2025
• Leftist Councils Vow to Take Down English Flags Amid Patriotic Uprising, Breitbart, 20 August 2025