Lamp-post flags organiser has ‘no regrets’ over movement

One of the men behind a campaign that has seen Union and St George’s Cross flags appear on lamp-posts across Birmingham says he has no regrets over the actions, which have divided opinion as to the motivation.

Banners first appeared in the city this summer, growing to thousands via a variety of sources and organised movements before spreading across the country. The practice showed national pride and unity, according to participants.

Many have not welcomed them, however, citing them being hijacked by far-right groups, including the English Defence League.

Ryan Bridge, an organiser with one campaign, claimed opposition came from white, middle-class, liberal people.

The next step for his Raise the Colours group, said Mr Bridge, was to maintain the flags that were already up.

He also said people were contacting the campaign asking for their streets to be similarly decorated, requests that would be addressed, he added.

Last week, footage of a confrontation in Stirchley, Birmingham, went viral, with a Raise the Colours activist accused of spreading hate.

And last month, Bob Maloney, from Birmingham Stand up to Racism, said his group was suspicious of the motives behind the flags, which were being used, he suggested, to cause division.

“This is not acceptable, this is a successful, multicultural, vibrant city and we want to keep it that way,” he told the BBC.

Asked whether he felt regret over an issue dividing people, Mr Bridge said: “Why would I regret the support and raising of the flag of our country, our beautiful country that we all live in and we all love?

“I’m sorry for offending anybody about the flag of our country. It’s all of our country – we’re a multi-faith, multi-religion, multicultural country and we should all be as one.”

Denying the actions had anything to do with race, Mr Bridge said his group were all Birmingham City fans living in a multicultural city, who drank in Irish pubs, and had mixed-race, Asian and black friends and were “all as one”.

He said the project’s aim had been to “raise a bit of colour to the streets after all the negativity from what’s going on in the government these days”.

Clusters of flags began appearing on lamp-posts in south Birmingham in July, growing in number, and, in one neighbourhood, well into four figures within the space of a mile or so.

That activity was said, following a BBC investigation, to have come off the back of an issue earlier in the summer in which a schoolgirl wearing a Union flag dress was not allowed to give a speech on being British.

The flags were linked to a group called the Weoley Warriors, which, in social media posts about the banners, used a hashtag Operation Raise the Colours – itself linked to flag activity in Wolverhampton, West Bromwich and Staffordshire.

Mr Bridge has previously said his similarly named group is a different set-up, telling the BBC on Thursday his operation had emerged in the neighbouring Solihull borough.

He suggested the practice of displaying flags there was nothing new and had gone on for years, initially, he said, with the Royal British Legion (RBL), and the current campaign “tagged on to the back of that” before it “exploded”, spreading out across Birmingham and towards Worcestershire.

A spokesman for the Royal British Legion said: “The Royal British Legion is a non-partisan organisation and is not affiliated with any flag-raising groups.

“We respect the right of individuals to display their national flag and express their views, however there is no connection between flag-raising and the Royal British Legion or the Poppy Appeal.”

Describing himself as an “old school Brummie”, Mr Bridge said he came from a working class family and the era of Cool Britannia and Noel Gallagher’s “iconic” union jack guitar, and, lamenting what he noted as a loss of national identity.

“We just need to bring back the old school values,” he added.

He said he grew up in Birmingham at a time when his grandparents had a tea service with images of the-then Prince Charles and Princess Diana, adding that people waved union jacks for a royal visit to Selly Oak, and as a cub scout he walked down the high street waving the same colours.

Mr Bridge confirmed his campaign had been taking donations from the public and said 100% of the money was spent on sending flags to people all over the country.

He said the activities were not profitable and campaigners had been “chipping in themselves”.

Displaying the flags, he told the BBC, was “nothing to do with the pigment in anyone’s skin”.

He said “the race word” had nothing to do with any of the group’s activities, which were “bringing people together”, getting back the “old school Brummie values”.

Of the white, middle class liberals he said were behind complaints, he said: “I think they’re the ones that have lost their true values of what Birmingham is all about.”