Thursday 23 April marks the day when, across the nation, Britons celebrate the martyrdom of St George, Patron Saint of England, who was executed for being a Christian in 303 AD, having previously won acclaim for slaying a dragon terrorising the town of Silene in Turkey.
Legend has it that, in order to get water, the inhabitants of the town had to offer a daily human sacrifice. George, at the time a soldier in the Roman army, arrived on the day a princess had been selected 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 challenging times when vice, violence, paganism and immorality seem once again on the rise.
Fast forward to July 2025, and the first large-scale display of St George flags began to appear on lampposts across England. As the movement spread, it became known as Operation Raise the Colours, and was ‘flagged’ as an expression of national pride and patriotism.
Across the world, most particularly perhaps in the US, there are similar displays of national pride that are both accepted as normal and encouraged, but here in the UK the displays quickly provoked criticism from those who said they were an act of intimidation and division by far-right activists – and that they had to be stopped!
What rapidly became an embittered row continues. Following a running battle to remove the flags, at the beginning of April Oxfordshire County Council issued a formal legal notice banning the attachment of flags to lampposts and highway infrastructure. Councillor Liz Leffman, spokesperson for the Council, said, “We are proud of our diverse communities … the widespread installation of flags by Raise the Colours is not a sign of patriotism. It is an act of intimidation and division that is having a real and damaging impact on our communities.”
Really?
Left to themselves, the English are notoriously slow to make any kind of public display, so in trying to understand what’s really going on here, perhaps we should 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 just marginalised, but that it has been thrown to the dogs.
Beyond question there is a major problem with illegal immigration. There are currently over 60,000 asylum seekers receiving housing and financial support as their claims to remain are assessed. More arrive daily, by boat, courtesy of the people smugglers. But, as we know all too well, the majority of those arriving aren’t genuine refugees (even if they are, many are arriving from France, a safe country), but are simply seeking a better life. Areas where they are housed in large numbers have seen soaring rates of rape and sexual assault.
But there is also the challenge of areas becoming ‘ghettoised’ by legally recognised ethnic communities which, far from integrating into British culture, seek not only to retain but to impose their own traditions and religious practice. According to the 2021 census, in London only 36.8% of people 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 overall character of our nation.
We now have around 2,000 mosques (that we know about) in England, with 400 alone in London, and more being added daily. In Whitechapel, a female police officer trying to defend a Christian street preacher was surrounded by a group of Asian men who told her ‘this is a Muslim area’. Remarkably, she stood her ground and said he had the right to preach there.
And the problems don’t stop there. White working-class children are now officially recognised as being educationally disadvantaged, in marked difference to their Asian and Chinese counterparts, who have consistently high levels of achievement, a discrepancy that grows with entry to university. In 2024, the highest 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 people 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 government is doing nothing to stem.
There is an ancient Chinese saying, ‘Rebellion is born when rulers forget they are meant to serve.’ Our ‘rulers’ would do well to take note of what’s happening and, instead of branding the flag-flying patriots as far-right thugs and extremists seeking to promote division, try 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 disadvantage by misguided and ill-judged policies designed to promote so-called ‘diversity’, it has joined in condemning those trying to stand up for British values as peddling racist division.
A statement issued by the Church of England Bishops’ Working Group for Promoting Unity in our Nation declares, ‘We reject the use of Christian symbols by those who seek to use them to intimidate others … far from working for unity in the nation, (these people) are seeking to sow division and misunderstanding.’
They would do better to affirm the Christian truth proclaimed in and by the symbol of the flag – which is our national flag, representing everyone. As it is, they are giving support to other religions that deny the divinity and authority of Christ, and are failing in their call to protect the flock. As they themselves proclaim, they are no longer the Church of England, but rather the Church for England. Sadly, that is not the Christian Church.
Lynda Rose is the director of Voice for Justice UK, and an Anglican priest and writer.
