“The whole thing has gotten completely out of control… It needs to stop.”
These are the words from Peter, a former member of Raise the Colours, a group founded last summer to place St George’s Cross flags around Birmingham.
Some believe that blanketing the streets with England flags is a symbol of pure patriotism; others say it’s an emblem of racism as the country deals with a migration crisis.
For Peter, the flags showed his love for his country and a desire to protect it from what he saw as rule-breakers: His frustrations “were never race”, he said, but about people from any nation coming into Britain without the correct border checks, be it America or Afghanistan.
“I enjoyed seeing the flags for no other reason than patriotism,” Peter said. Now, “I don’t even know what that word means anymore.”
He is one of several people The i Paper has spoken to who have walked away from the group, saying it has transformed into something more sinister than they ever intended. Peter – not his real name – spoke to this paper on the condition of anonymity, like others in this story.
Escalation
The first signs of Raise the Colours’ escalation in tactics took place last November, when some members of the group travelled to France to slash boats used by migrants and refugees. The vigilantes’ efforts, first recorded by this paper, prompted the French government to ban 10 of them from the entire country, labelling them “far-right activists”.
Raise the Colours said in a statement it had always maintained that its activities must remain peaceful and within the law and it “does not support violence or any unlawful activity”.
Anti-migrant vigilantes Ryan Bridge and Daniel Thomas are among ten men banned from France after harassing migrants and slashing boats. Thomas has since left Raise the Colours. (Photo: Raise the Colours/Facebook)Despite the ban, the group has continued to escalate their activities, with co-founder Ryan Bridge leading the charge.
Bridge was arrested on suspicion of causing religiously and racially aggravated harassment in Oxford on 31 March, as well as suspicion of wounding during a separate incident in London on 16 May. He was released on bail in both cases.
Facebook videos posted by the group from an event in Stirchley, near Birmingham, on 14 May showed Bridge shouting that he wants to “get immigrants out of our fucking country”. Another man, wearing a balaclava and a jumper with the group’s emblem, can be seen grabbing at the face covering of a woman who appears to be from an ethnic minority.
Shame and regret
“I wish it never started. I’m really regretful,” Peter told this paper.
“I genuinely wish I had never entertained doing what we did because it hasn’t worked out as we originally envisioned. It’s a shame because it was something that was patriotic, but I’m even questioning what patriotism is now.”
Multiple people connected to the Raise the Colours said they decided to walk away several months ago. One said he has not spoken to Bridge “in months”, while another said he “doesn’t associate with Bridge or RTC” anymore.
Some of the defectors have different reasons for walking away, with some claiming the group has become “the Ryan Bridge show” and is about boosting his social media popularity, while others are opting to back the Restore, a new anti-immigrant, ultra-right-wing political party trying to challenge Nigel Farage’s Reform.
‘Swigging Stella’ at Nowak protests
Raise the Colours’ transition from flag-raising to something more extreme culminated on Tuesday, as past and present members of the group gathered to protest the death of Henry Nowak as violence broke out.
Nowak, a white 18-year-old student, was arrested as he lay dying after his Sikh murderer falsely accused him of racism. His father had pleaded with people not to hijack his son’s tragic death, but far-right agitators nonetheless sparked violence in Nowak’s name, leaving 11 police officers injured and two arrested.
Raise the Colours posted this video, which they watermarked, showing protesters throwing a bin towards police outside the family home of Henry Nowak’s murderer. (Photo: Raise the Colours/Facebook)Peter watched a livestream of the violent protest from home. “I can’t stand it. There was a load of them standing there swigging cans of Stella [Artois] and you think to yourself, is that really paying respect to somebody that’s lost his life?” he said.
“It’s a protest for a kid that lost his life with zero dignity and should not have died. That’s no way to honor him.”
Raise the Colours also posted videos from the crowds near the family home of Nowak’s murderer, while a former frontman of the group, Daniel Thomas, issued calls for people to gather at Southampton police station.
Thomas – who was convicted of atttempting kidnapping in 2016 and a former bodyguard of far-right leader Tommy Robinson – fell out with Bridge and left Raise the Colours at the start of the year.
Sid Venkataramakrishan, an analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, said it wasn’t surprising to see a “graduation” in groups like Raise the Colours as the anti-migrant movement has “intensified over the past year”.
“Their involvement at Southampton reflects how Henry Nowak’s murder has become yet another focal point, like the Southport stabbing, to prove purity within the movement and to take part in direct physical action,” he said.
Raise the Colours, Bridge and Thomas did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
‘The kitty’s empty’
Rasie the Colours appears also to have spent all their donations from the public, understood to have been tens of thousands of pounds.
Meanwhile, co-founder Bridge, who did not appear to attend Tuesday’s protests, asked social media followers to donate “even just a pound” because “the kitty’s empty” in a video in May.
The increasingly extremist group faces mounting legal difficulties, with arrests made after a man was left needing surgery after being hit by a van. The crash happened after a confrontation over flags Raise the Colours had put up, with footage on social media showing the group in a heated argument with local residents.
A number of faces that once appeared in Raise the Colours videos have disappeared from the broadcasts, which now primarily feature just Bridge.
Thomas left the group, while another co-founder, Elliott Stanley, has not been featured in months.
Thomas has since crowdfunded donations and bought a boat, from which he now films himself attempting to interact with migrants crossing the Channel. He has also launched a new initiative to try to organise people en masse to take direct action against migrants in the UK or those attempting to come to the UK.
Ryan Bridge in a screenshot from a video taken on 10 May. He is the frontman of Raise the Colours. (Photo: Raise the Colours/Facebook)Bridge appears to be increasingly isolated, saying in one video that family members had told him they were glad he had been arrested and urging him to stop.
Instead, newer faces are appearing in their clips – including one man Bridge interviewed and spent time with in London and Shrewsbury, who has posted a video of himself on Instagram doing a first-salute while holding a banner that reads “Aryan Power” and a photo wearing a t-shirt with neo-nazi symbols such as the Aryan Fist on.
It is a world away from what Peter expected when he first began raising flags.
“It was a laugh, we were having fun… Hundreds of cars would be beeping, people pulling over to say ‘well done lads’,” he said. Peter said he first grew concerned when the group continued to put up flags in areas where the locals did not want it.
The man on the right with his fist in the air has repeatedly been filmed accompanying Ryan Bridge and Raise the Colours members. (Photo: rfergov2__/Instagram)Volatile clashes with locals who opposed or took down the flags began to be filmed and posted onto Raise the Colours social media channels, quickly racking up tens of thousands of views. Some of the locals subsequently became the target of abuse, with their private details such as home addresses posted online by people who had watched the videos.
“It felt like it became about making content for the sake of content,” Peter reflected.
He said he had hoped their flag-raising efforts would reclaim the flag from the way it became weaponised as a tool of racism by the National Front, but recognises that this did not succeed.
“It’s the flag of our national country. It should be a unifying banner for all of us, for everybody, and that’s what I tried to get across. I don’t think it ever came across for people because they were not prepared to listen to me, they’d already had preconceptions of what we were doing it for.”
“It was a genuine desire on my part to bring unity for all of us that live in this country,” he said. “That message has been completely lost and Raise the Colours now is absolutely nowhere near where it started.”
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