'We should be patriotic' Flag-flying movement spreads as anti-racist groups sound the alarm

Flag-flying movement spreads as anti-racist groups sound the alarm

- Esther Addley

"This is NOT racist, never has been, never will be," reads the fundraising page of a group calling itself the Wythall Flaggers, which by yesterday afternoon had raised more than £2,000, mostly in small donations of £5 and £10. "We have members of the community of all ethnicities and religions stopping by and praising what we are doing so please don't call this racist."

The money, according to the page's organiser, will be used for "coating the local community in England flags as this is home and we should be patriotic and proud. We need help to cover every street in Wythall with our beautiful St George's cross."

If only all in the Worcestershire village, south of Birmingham, agreed. Footage posted on social media this week claims to show an elderly couple using a ladder to remove the English national flag from a lamp post in the village. One comment on social media reads: "Traitors."