The questions about St George’s and union jack flags lining British streets

Driving to the south -west of Birmingham, it is hard to notice something about the lamps.

For more than a mile, almost each has a st George or Union Jack Flag – thousands of.

In a region, BBC found two men carrying BBC, staircase and shopping bags in Weoley Castle. This is not a DIY trip, because when we stop talking to them, the ladder stands against a lamp, the other pulls a Union Jack flag from the bag and flys high the next minute.

They tell us that they want to spread “love, unity and patriotism”, but they don’t want to withdraw or interview. They direct us to a local café where flags and donations are collected to learn more.

Beyond special days such as royal, sports or military activities, it is rare to see the national flags covering our streets in Great Britain, why are they now emerging – and does this say anything greater about the perceptions of people’s modern Britain?

The last phenomenon began in Weoley Castle in mid -July and spread to neighboring areas. Last week, not only West Midlands, but also in other parts of the UK, including Worcester, Bradford, Greater Manchester, Newcastle and Norwich.

In response to a story in the nearby Rugby town, the first flags were placed in the Square of Weoley Castle. Preventing him from speaking about being British In his school, wearing a union with a crico -themed dress.

He was wearing the clothes of Bilton School’s “Culture Celebration Day”, where students were asked to wear cultural clothes instead of school uniforms. Since then, the school offered the girl “unprotected apology”.

While the story collected Steam online, a group called Weoley Warriors was founded, the locals first told us by three men in the café, but now it was told to have several dozen members.

We know very little about this group and exactly behind. What we know is that in the last few weeks, it is productive on social media with the brave lion -themed logo, which is mainly shared by individual accounts. There is a private Facebook group of 1,600 members and launched an online Crowdfunder that collects an £ 14,000 that the group only said to be used for “flags, poles and cable bonds”.

On the Crowdfunder page, Weoley Warriors describes him as a group of proud British man who shows him “Birmingham and the rest of the country, how proud we’re in history, freedoms and achievements, how proud we’re to local communities.

A Tiktok account with Weoley Warriors has used the “upgrade process” hashtag on some posts, which is an expression that many accounts use with pictures of various flag positions.

“Raise the colors of the operation” is also the name of another group that encourages people to put flags, and the extreme right organization is claimed to accept a donation from the UK. Times Report. According to the research group I hope he won’t hateOperation colors were founded by Andrew Currien, known as Andy Saxon, allegedly connected with the British Defense League and the UK. The group denies that there is an extreme right organization.

While Weoley Warriors focuses on Birmingham, the operation claims that it provides flags to areas such as Wolverhampton, West Bromwich and Staffordshire. On Thursday, at London’s Canary Wharf, a large group of men with many masks raised hundreds of flags to support the campaign.

In some other areas, raising the flags Highly loaded political time in the UKEspecially in the case of national identity and belonging. Some hotels where the flags of Union Jack and St George are largely included between the banners are protested other than housing asylum seekers.

One Legal War on the closure of a shelter hotel The town of Essex is planned in EPPING and more demonstrations in which speakers often refer to national themes.

However, the use of both St George and Union Jack flags as an emblem for extreme right political movements for many years meant that some residents in Birmingham were uncomfortable with the motivations of those who supported Weoley fighters.

A man with a doner intersection in the suburb of the kings, “not patriotic, but just a excuse for xenophobia,” he said.

Sarah Milne, who knows the original members of Weoley Warriors, says that we are proud of the country and “to take the flag back from racists”.

He believes that this is a part of the reaction to a general sense of weakness – “Everyone is very upset about the way the country runs, the way we’re being treated”.

After trying to communicate with the group more than once through the BBC, Social Media and Crowdfunder page, there was no response from Weoley Warriors.

All the locals we chat at at Weoley Castle support the flags, but for different reasons. Some say this is about patriotism and civilian pride, while others talk about migration, while others point to the Palestinian flags flying for a long time in other parts of the city, although much less.

The reaction of six miles away in the Barnt Green Village Worcestershire, the Bayragli, has become more silent with a few people who said that they were pleased with the flags of the BBC, but the others were uncomfortable – a man afraid that a man could cause division.

With the flags of Jack and Four Nations, the Union reaches the heart of how many British relationships are complex.

Sociologist and writer Ellis Cashmore believes that those who exhibit flags probably have different reasons to do so, but often feel the feeling of being behind or ignoring. For some, Tax increases and economic pain warnings Potentially coming in this autumn may contribute to this feeling of disappointment.

“If people conclude that they are silenced or ignored, they want to do something about it.”

“Of course they don’t have vehicles to make an official protest, but what are they doing? They start throwing these flags out, they shake them … They want people to pay attention to them.”

In recent weeks, those who raised flags at lamps have often used Union Jacks, but others – especially those who painted intersections and zebra transitions – chose St George’s Cross, symbolizing the protective saint of England.

St George’s flag sometimes had a closer relationship with the British nationalists, and it was frequently used by the mainstream political parties, including Union Jack, Tories and Emek. In addition to these flags, you can see the Scottish Saltire, Wales Dragon and Irish ricolor in one of the busiest roads in Birmingham.

Mayor Andy Burnham in Greater Manchester, where flags also emerge BBC told Radio Manchester “Flags are contentious … Especially the st George Flag”.

“I don’t think you should start painting your community, if you have a choice, you can clearly show a flag, but I don’t know, I wonder about the times we live in,” he said.

“It is as if people want to confront.”

Nick Ireland, a democrat of the Dorset Council, said that on Friday, some inhabitants found the “scary” flag flags there, and the emblems were “naive” to argue “by some far -right groups.

As a political row developed on the response to flags and intersections, the Tora leader Kemi Badenoch entered on Saturday to say that lifting the flags in the lamps acts in a “shameful” way and applied the rules “selective”.

Instead of being seen as a “act of rebellion” in the Daily Mail, he wrote “gladly met”.

Meanwhile, the Municipal Assembly operated by Labour in Birmingham is accused of leaving the Palestinian flags, but to take ST George’s and Union Jack Flags down. Initially, the authorities said that the latter had a risk of health and safety and will be removed. The Council also said that only 200 flags since the beginning of January and none of them have been removed since August 1st.

Most of the Palestinian flags in Birmingham appeared occasionally on one or two Lambal poles instead of covering the streets. An exception of this was quickly removed at the beginning of July, when the lamps between the University of Birmingham and the Edgbaston cricket field were in bed with Palestinian flags.

According to an opinion that moves a little away from Burnham’s comments, another worker mayor – Richard Parker from Western Midlands – this week said: “I have seen them, I agree that they have revived us all… Patriotism is something I support, so my position and I think the position of the councils and politicians.”

Police got involved In some of the circulation exploding, West Mercia police said that this week Bromsgrove and West Midlands said that the police were investigating as a crime.

It remains unclear how long this will last. Patriotic flags, as in many US neighborhoods they are common, will there be a more permanent fixture for the settlement streets in the UK?

As the flag flying and the intersection grew up in Greater Manchester this week, as Burnam asked people to “relax” – many seems to be more easily said than doing it right now.

Additional reports of Katie Thompson and Amy Johnston.