Flying the flag – act of defiance or plea for help?

Thursday 23 April marks the day when, across the nation, Britons have fun the martyrdom of St George, Patron Saint of England, who was executed for being a Christian in 303 AD, having previously won popularity of slaying a dragon terrorising the town of Silene in Turkey.  

Legend has it that, with a purpose to get water, the inhabitants of the town had to supply a day by day human sacrifice. George, on the time a soldier within the Roman army, arrived on the day a princess had been chosen for the offering. As any good hero would, George slew the dragon, rescued the princess, and restored access to the town’s water supply, after which the local populace was so grateful that the people converted en masse to Christianity.  

A stirring tale of courage and the triumph of goodness over evil – a worthy saint for England, one feels, especially in these dark and difficult times when vice, violence, paganism and immorality seem once more on the rise.  

Fast forward to July 2025, and the primary large-scale display of St George flags started to appear on lampposts across England. As the movement spread, it became often known as Operation Raise the Colours, and was ‘flagged’ as an expression of national pride and patriotism. 

Across the world, most particularly perhaps within the US, there are similar displays of national pride which might be each accepted as normal and encouraged, but here within the UK the displays quickly provoked criticism from those that said they were an act of intimidation and division by far-right activists – and that that they had to be stopped!  

What rapidly became an embittered row continues. Following a running battle to remove the flags, initially of April Oxfordshire County Council issued a proper legal notice banning the attachment of flags to lampposts and highway infrastructure. Councillor Liz Leffman, spokesperson for the Council, said, “We are happy with our diverse communities … the widespread installation of flags by Raise the Colours is just not an indication of patriotism. It is an act of intimidation and division that’s having an actual and damaging impact on our communities.”

Really?  

Left to themselves, the English are notoriously slow to make any form of public display, so in trying to grasp what’s really occurring here, perhaps we must always ask why people have felt moved to behave in so ‘unBritish’ a way? The answer must surely be that, under current policies, the indigenous population is feeling not only marginalised, but that it has been thrown to the dogs.  

Beyond query there’s a serious problem with illegal immigration. There are currently over 60,000 asylum seekers receiving housing and financial support as their claims to stay are assessed. More arrive day by day, by boat, courtesy of the people smugglers. But, as we all know all too well, the vast majority of those arriving aren’t real refugees (even in the event that they are, many are arriving from France, a protected country), but are simply searching for a greater life. Areas where they’re housed in large numbers have seen soaring rates of rape and sexual assault. 

But there’s also the challenge of areas becoming ‘ghettoised’ by legally recognised ethnic communities which, removed from integrating into British culture, seek not only to retain but to impose their very own traditions and spiritual practice. According to the 2021 census, in London only 36.8% of individuals identified as White British, 40.9% in Leicester, 48.6% in Birmingham, and 44.6% in Luton. Inevitably such an ethnic imbalance, seemingly supported by government policy, is changing the general character of our nation. 

We now have around 2,000 mosques (that we find out about) in England, with 400 alone in London, and more being added day by day.  In Whitechapel, a female police officer attempting to defend a Christian street preacher was surrounded by a bunch of Asian men who told her ‘this can be a Muslim area’. Remarkably, she stood her ground and said he had the appropriate to evangelise there. 

And the issues don’t stop there. White working-class children at the moment are officially recognised as being educationally disadvantaged, in marked difference to their Asian and Chinese counterparts, who’ve consistently high levels of feat, a discrepancy that grows with entry to school. In 2024, the very best entry group was for Chinese students, at 66.1%, followed by Asian students at around 55%.  The lowest entry group was for white students, at 29.9%. 

It’s a similar story with poverty levels, with Government figures released in June 2025, showing that 76.4% of individuals on universal credit were of white ethnicity. 

The clear message is that Britain’s traditional culture, national identity, and faith is in terminal decline, which the federal government is doing nothing to stem. 

There is an ancient Chinese saying, ‘Rebellion is born when rulers forget they are supposed to serve.’ Our ‘rulers’ would do well to pay attention to what’s happening, and, as an alternative of branding the flag-flying patriots far-right thugs and extremists searching for to advertise division, attempt to redress the imbalance.

Perhaps most tragic of all, in what appears to be rapidly becoming a contest for supremacy, is the intervention of The Church of England. Instead of standing for Christian faith and values, and defending those placed at drawback by misguided and ill-judged policies designed to advertise so-called ‘diversity’, it has joined in condemning those attempting to get up for British values as peddling racist division.   

An announcement issued by the Church of England Bishops’ Working Group for Promoting Unity in our Nation declares, ‘We reject the usage of Christian symbols by those that seek to make use of them to intimidate others … removed from working for unity within the nation, (these people) are searching for to sow division and misunderstanding.’ 

They would do higher to affirm the Christian truth proclaimed in and by the symbol of the flag – which is our national flag, representing everyone. As it’s, they’re giving support to other religions that deny the divinity and authority of Christ, and are failing of their call to guard the flock. As they themselves proclaim, they are not any longer the Church of England, but relatively the Church for England. Sadly, that is just not the Christian Church.

Lynda Rose is the director of Voice for Justice UK, and an Anglican priest and author.