Birmingham has declared the England flag haram

The war on the England flag is gathering steam. This week, Birmingham City Council – the biggest local authority in the UK – announced its intention to criminalise public displays of patriotism. It considers the threat of the St George’s Cross to be so serious that it is even taking the matter to the High Court.

Birmingham – like the other local councils that have taken similar measures – has tried to play down any link between its actions and the English flag. It says it is only trying to ‘prohibit unauthorised attachments’ that might appear on the city’s highways, such as ‘flags and banners’. But this is not fooling anyone. Indeed, a statement provided by Green councillor Jane Baston defending the ban – citing ‘community cohesion’ and ‘public safety’ – tells us all we need to know.

Last summer’s Raise the Colours campaign – the grass-roots movement that attached Union Jacks and St George’s Crosses to street lights across England – never sat easily with the woke jobsworths that now dominate local councils. In April, Oxfordshire County Council announced that it would take ‘civil and criminal proceedings’ against anyone found to have hoisted a national flag on council property. Council leader Liz Leffman said the proliferation of English flags had left locals feeling ‘distressed, unwelcome and unsafe in their own communities’. So the flags had to go.

Then it was Bristol’s turn. Disturbed by the outpouring of national pride inspired by the World Cup, the Greens-led council issued its own fatwa on the English flag. This, we were told, was to ensure that Bristol remained ‘welcoming, respectful and safe for everyone during the tournament’. So English people, living in England, had to curb their enthusiasm for the England football team, lest any migrants take offence at the national flag of the country they had chosen to live in.

This neurotic self-loathing isn’t just confined to local councils. We also learnt this week that the Home Office provided mental-health support to civil servants who found the English flag ‘triggering’. When the Raise the Colours campaign began, a ‘safe space’ meeting was called over the ‘concerning misuse’ of the St George’s Cross. Eleven different types of support were offered by the Home Office.

Those apparatchiks who despise the English flag will no doubt say the flag has been ‘misappropriated’. They will claim that it isn’t the flag itself, but the ‘far right’ that is the problem. But this clearly isn’t true. Last year, when a 12-year-old girl was sent home and reprimanded for wearing a sequined Union Jack flag to her school’s Culture Day, it wasn’t because she was a threat to ‘community cohesion’ – it was because she was proud of being English. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that neutering patriotic feeling among the public is the real aim of these flag bans.

The actions of Birmingham City Council are especially concerning. This is a council that has been bankrupt since 2023. For more than a year, it has been unable to collect the rubbish on its streets. Parts of the city have become an open-air tip, breeding rats the size of kittens. Yet instead of doing something about the dystopian slum their city has turned into, councillors are dedicating their energy and resources (that is, the residents’ resources) to banning the English flag.

In fact, the deeper you look into Birmingham, the more concerned you might become. Is it right that this city will illuminate its library in green and white to celebrate Pakistan’s independence day, but will prosecute people who dare attach an English flag to its lampposts? Islamic sectarians govern the city in coalition with the Greens. Is there a problem when Birmingham can begin its council meetings with Islamic prayers in Arabic, while residents are threatened with criminal proceedings for expressing pride in England? The flag ban is surely just a symptom of a far deeper cultural malaise.

That is why we must stand up to these attacks on the English flag. Feeling pride in your country isn’t a crime – it is a right. And, like all rights, it will be hard to recover once it’s lost.