Read more<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n Saltire and Lion Rampant flags were cable-tied to lampposts along the road running west out of the city, between Saughton and Sighthill, in mid-September. They were swiftly removed by the council, however more appeared overnight just days later and many remain in place.\n<\/p>\n
\n This followed similar displays of the St George\u2019s Cross and Union Flags in parts of England throughout the summer, as part of the so-called Operation Raise The Colours.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n The campaign, which has come off the back of a wave of anti-migrant protests across the UK, was co-founded by Andrew Currien, otherwise known as Andy Saxon, who allegedly has links with the English Defence League and Britain First.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Critics dismiss it as an attempt to intimidate immigrants and ethnic minorities. However, supporters of the movement say it is intended as an expression of patriotism and unity.\n<\/p>\n
\n In Edinburgh, city councillors have raised concerns over the authority\u2019s failure to act, as it is illegal to attach flags to council-owned assets, such as lampposts, unless permission is granted. One feared the lack of response was \u201cemboldening other anti-migrant activity\u201d after it emerged \u2018deport Muslims\u2019 had been spray-painted on the entrance to an underpass on Calder Road.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Another said the vast majority of local residents \u201cwant nothing at all to do with the bigots who are trying to turn our flags into symbols of hatred and intimidation against vulnerable members of our community\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n Meanwhile, anti-racism campaigners said they were threatened by a man who told them he would \u201cslit your throats\u201d when they tried to remove the flags earlier this month.\n<\/p>\n
\n Police Scotland confirmed it was investigating a report of a man threatened by another man in the Calder Road area at around 10.30am on Sunday, 5 October, 2025.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Council staff and contractors are understood to have significant concerns about being asked to remove the flags, given how sensitive the issue has become and the abuse workers have faced in other local authorities where flags have appeared on lampposts.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Donny Gluckstein, of Edinburgh TUC, said unions \u201cdon’t want employees to be put under tonnes of risk when they’re taking down the flags\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n But he said they had to be removed and there shouldn\u2019t be an \u201cattitude of impunity\u201d.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cPeople are feeling threatened now,\u201d he added. \u201cOne of the problems about leaving it is that it’s beginning to spread. It’s moved from the Calder road, apparently, down Broomhouse Road.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe people actually doing it are part of Operation Raise the Colours; it’s a very, very small, hard right group who do not represent anybody at all in that sense, apart from themselves.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThose flags are unauthorised flags, they’re on council property, they’ve never been agreed to by the council.”\n<\/p>\n
\n He said the flags should be “classified as litter”.\n<\/p>\n
\n “This is people obstructing our streets with something. As I say, whether what flag it is, it’s not the point. Number one, it’s litter.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Number two, it’s a public nuisance and there’s legislation about public nuisance.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe flag itself is irrelevant. It could be a Saltire, it could be a St George\u2019s Cross, it could be anything. That’s not the point. It’s that people are putting flags up on property to intimidate the population.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Gluckstein, who was part of the group threatened earlier this month, said: \u201cWe worry about the workers, because what happened to me and my friends, we do not want to happen to any council employees who are asked to do something about these flags.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe police need to coordinate this. Whether it’s the use of CCTV for some monitor afterwards, because that’s that part of the road, I think it’s covered by CCTV, whether it’s making sure that people are not filmed or attacked when they’re taking down the thing.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIn other words, there needs to be a police presence, to stop people being harassed when they’re doing it. So there does need to be a sort of practical coordinated operation, which I’m assuming the council liaison with the police could organise.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n He said the \u201cwhole idea\u201d of Edinburgh being a welcoming city was now \u201cmore difficult than it used to be, just a few months ago, to be honest\u201d.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Scottish Greens<\/a> councillor Chas Booth lodged an emergency motion at the City Chambers on Tuesday, October 21, condemning \u201cany attempt to make immigrants or minorities feel unwelcome in Edinburgh.\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n The motion, which was not heard after council leader Jane Meagher ruled it not urgent, urged senior officials not to instruct staff directly to remove the flags.\n<\/p>\n
\n More from our Edinburgh Correspondent<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n Instead, it called for talks with workers and trade unions and for measures to protect the health and safety of staff and contractors tasked with taking them down, ensuring they can do so \u201cwithout risk of physical assault or intimidation”.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Greens plan to bring a similar motion to next week\u2019s full council meeting, noting that the flags breach regulations prohibiting anything from being attached to street lighting columns without permission.\n<\/p>\n
\n That motion will warn that delays in removing the flags risk making minority groups feel unwelcome and undermining community cohesion.\n<\/p>\n
\n City of Edinburgh Council and Police Scotland were contacted for a response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The group warned it is \u201cbeginning to spread\u201d as a result of continued inaction. Senior councillors received a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-517123","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-edinburgh","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115412519075729438","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}