Even snails can’t escape after someone paints an England flag on its shell

That’s one shell of a way to spread English patriotism.

Flag-loving painters have ditched roundabouts and zebra crossings, instead turning their attention to… snails.

The red and white St George’s Cross took over streets and divided opinion in parts of England over the summer.

Now one social media user has caused a TikTok storm after they found a snail covered in the patriotic colours last weekend.

The gastropod can be seen crawling across an unknown road with the St George’s flag painted on its shell.

The video was captioned ‘Wtaf is going on in the UK rn [right now]’, with an unimpressed face alongside.

Cue a wave of jokes and hot takes as the video ratcheted up over a million likes on the site.

‘He’s on his way back from the march mate,’ commented one TikTok user, referencing Tommy Robinson’s ‘Unite the Kingdom’ rally in London on Saturday.

The protest saw between 110,000 and 150,000 people walk, or glide in the snail’s case, across the capital in support of freedom of speech.

The march followed a summer of feverish English patriotism, as St George’s flags were plastered on roads and poles.

This left one TikToker asking ‘why’s the snail wearing a roundabout?’ in response to the viral video.

The influx of England flags appears to have started on the streets of Weoley Castle, a short drive outside of Birmingham.

This was the work of a group called the Weoley Warriors, who describe themselves as ‘proud English men’ on a fundraising page which has so far collected more than £20,000 for ‘flags, poles and cable ties’.

Their project – to ‘show Birmingham and the rest of the country of how proud we are of our history, freedoms and achievements’ – is clearly popular.

That’s not just evident from the amount that’s been raised. Streets in places from Bristol to Newcastle have followed suit with their own flag displays.

The displays are controversial because the flag campaign was embraced by far-right nationalists.

Billionaire Elon Musk posted an image of the St George’s Cross on his person X account, which was shared by far-right activist Tommy Robinson, who added: ‘Revolution is coming, nothing can stop it’.

Advocacy group Hope Not Hate has also identified a number of Robinson supporters behind another campaign organising flag displays, named Operation Raise the Colours.

The excitement got the better of two bungling men, who accidentally painted the Danish flag on a roundabout in Newton Farm, Hereford.

Towns and local authorities reacted in different ways to the patriotic displays.

Joanne Monk, the Reform leader of Worcestershire County Council, has said she would not be instructing staff to remove any flags hung in public or painted on the road.

Whereas Birmingham City Council said flags on lampposts would be removed as they were a ‘safety hazard’.

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