Why on earth are people painting flags on roundabouts? A full timeline of the bleak saga

Over the bank holiday weekend, social media has been full of photos and videos of people painting England flags on roundabouts across the UK.

It’s become associated with a far-right political movement that sees people using the St George’s flag, which is white with a red cross, as a symbol of extreme views.

If you’re confused, here’s a full timeline of the bleak saga from start to finish.

Who thinks every roundabout in the country should look like this? pic.twitter.com/Sn0oF0w9s2

— Benonwine (@benonwine) August 18, 2025

People first started putting up flags in Birmingham

It all started in Birmingham earlier this month when a group of people called the Weoley Warriors began putting St George’s flags on lamp posts in Weoley Castle and Northfield.

On their GoFundMe page, they describe themselves as a “group of proud English men with a common goal to show Birmingham and the rest of the country of how proud we are of our history, freedoms and achievements, giving hope to local communities that all isn’t lost and they are not alone”.

“No matter your background, race or religion, we live side by side in this country together; so when you look up and see the flags fly, they fly for you,” they also say.

The group insists they are doing it peacefully as a sign of patriotism. However, the flags soon became associated with extremism. People putting up flags are believed to be showing their support for far-right political views, including nationalism, racism, xenophobia, anti-immigration and white supremacy.

Then the ‘Operation Raise the Colours’ movement launched

The flags were then popularised by a group called “Operation Raise the Colours”. This was co-founded by one of Tommy Robinson’s allies Andrew Currien, who is also known as Andy Saxon. He was a member of the English Defence League’s leadership team, and now runs the far-right party Britain First.

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His Twitter bio has a link to a fundraising page where he is collecting money to “help us purchase new flags so we can continue putting them up”.

“We are the founding members of this operation, which has taken off all over the UK. These small donations will help us purchase new flags so we can continue putting them up. Our aim is to fly the Union Jack and St George’s Cross flags on lampposts around the UK,” it says.

Operation raise the colours HQ 🇬🇧 🏴󐁧󐁢󐁥󐁮󐁧󐁿

In the last 24hrs, we have supplied 6 districts with a thousand flags. These districts include, Wolverhampton, West Bromwich, Worcester, Dudley, Stourbridge and Staffordshire.

With your help, we can continue to supply our teams… pic.twitter.com/VlEFxRKspl

— Andy Saxon (@AndySaxon78) August 22, 2025

People began painting flags on roundabouts and zebra crossings

After the flags on lamp posts blew up on social media, people began painting red crosses on the white centre of roundabouts and stripes on zebra crossings to make them look like the St George’s flag. It’s not clear who actually started this, but as soon as one person did it, people began copying it all over the UK.

Lots of people are still claiming it’s just an innocent sign of patriotism to show pride in being British and spread community. However, following Operation Raise the Colours, it’s become even more associated with far-right extremism.

So, where is the bleak saga up to now?

At the end of August, people are still putting up flags all over the UK and painting roundabouts, and councils are working hard to get rid of them all.

A spokesperson for Tower Hamlets council in London said: “While we recognise people wish to express their views, we have a responsibility to monitor and maintain council infrastructure. Where flags are attached to council-owned infrastructure without permission, they may be removed as part of routine maintenance.”

@jameelahbowden

Went out this weekend and Surrey is also feeling patriotic. 😂🙈

♬ Welp, Didn’t Expect That – Yu-Peng Chen & HOYO-MiX

The government hasn’t publicly responded to Operation Raise the Colours, but a spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Monday: “I think the PM has always talked about his pride of being British, the patriotism he feels. I think he’s talked about that previously, not least recently in relation to the Lionesses’ successful campaign in the Euros. Patriotism will always be an important thing to him.”

When asked if Keir supports people who put up England flags, he added: “Absolutely, patriotism, putting up English flags. We put up English flags all around Downing Street every time the English football team – women’s and men’s – are out trying to win games for us.”

So, it seems like there is still a lot of confusion about what message the flags are actually spreading.

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Featured image by: @inanfida and @jameelahbowden/TikTok