Raise the Colours deny links with organiser accused of making indecent child images

Dear readers — a truncated briefing for you this morning, as Kate isn’t back until tomorrow and we’re running on the back-up generator (aka, Moya). 

The (slight) breather from the oppressively hot weather comes to an end this week and like many in the city, we’ve been wondering where on earth we can go to cool off. Not as much of a pressing issue in cooler climes but now ‘extreme’ weather events are becoming all too regular, it’s impossible to ignore the fact that Brum is pretty devoid of open-air swimming spots. 

Our new staff writer, Olivia is going to be digging into exactly why and we want your help. If you’re sitting on memories of splashing around in the last lidos that operated in Birmingham and the Black Country (Bournville, Solihull and so on), please share them with us. Drop us a comment or email Olivia directly on olivia@birminghamdispatch.co.uk. 

Now: your abridged Brum in Brief. 

Brum in Brief

🚮 A big exclusive by ITV’s Lewis Warner dropped last week, after the journalist was leaked “secret” plans by senior Birmingham city council officials to sack striking bin workers — and to do so amid the chaos of a new administration so no councillors had to bear responsibility for the decision. The confidential report acknowledges that any dismissal of striking staff would be “unfair” but goes on to deem it the “only certain mechanism” to bring the long-running industrial action to a close, concluding that: “It is not unlawful or unreasonable for the Council to be considering this as a course of action”. 

📃 Perhaps the most bombshell part of the report is the portion where unelected council officials recommend that any potential sackings would have to take place without the permission of councillors and should happen straight after local elections “before a new administration formally takes office." Why? Because then the new council has the problem solved — without any of the political blowback from sacking striking workers. A new council could "disown responsibility for the decision, while nonetheless benefiting from the resolution of the strike," the document notes. Someone’s been reading Machiavelli. 

👀 But has making such an option public actually warmed up the incoming coalition council to this very brutal manner of cutting the Gordian knot? This morning, Warner had a follow up to his expose: comments from new council leader, Liberal Democrat Roger Harmer, who’s in his first proper day of the job. Councillor Harmer said sacking refuse workers — who’ve been on strike since March 2025 — would be a sign of “failure” and “absolutely not what we’re aiming to do”. Yet, notably, he didn’t rule it out altogether. All eyes on this coterie of Greens, Lib Dems and independents for the next move. 

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Birmingham-based flag enthusiasts Raise the Colours are busy distancing themselves from a prominent figure in the Oxfordshire branch after he was charged with making indecent imagery of children. Ben Cullen, one of the leading organisers of the Oxfordshire chapter of Raise the Colours (group tagline: “Saving our women and children”), is currently on trial on three counts of making over 70 indecent images, including 22 belonging to category A — the most severe offence.