In recent days, from Birmingham to Tower Hamlets, ordinary British and English people have, seemingly spontaneously, started to raise Union Jack and St George’s flags on lampposts and buildings. Some have even painted flags on roundabouts.

Shortly afterwards, however, local council workers quickly began taking down the flags, arguing the “unauthorised items” were “dangerous”, on the basis they might distract and even kill passing motorists and pedestrians.

Yet many, understandably, see glaring hypocrisy.

While the Labour-run council in highly-diverse Birmingham is now rushing to take down English and Union flags, it has left Palestinian flags flying for months (for its part, in what is another depressing insight into the dire state of modern Britain, the council says it needs police protection to remove Palestine flags in Muslim areas).

At the same time, Birmingham council is pulling down Union Jack and St George’s flags while seemingly having no issue lighting the taxpayer-funded library building in green and white to celebrate the independence of … Pakistan.

All of which helps to explain why, unsurprisingly, some locals have started to rebel by joining the “raise the colours” campaign. And nor are they alone.

In similarly diverse Tower Hamlets, in east London, residents have also been spotted raising flags on lampposts, while the local council, run by the pro-Gaza Aspire Party which has also left Palestine flags flying for months, just vowed to remove any English and British flags “as soon as possible”.

-- Matt Goodwin