An England flag dangles from a streetlight, twitching twice in the autumn breeze before giving up and falling still. Thirty feet away, a Union Jack clings to a school sign - limp and unwilling to stir.

My notepad is full of prompts but there's really only one question I care about: ' how do you feel about the flags?'

I ask that question again and again as I move in and out of businesses up and down Stirchley's Pershore Road - which has been on the front line of the flags debate in recent weeks . Bells chime each time I enter and, more often than not, they ring again twenty seconds later when I'm back out the door.

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Most people would rather not talk. They apologise, guiding me with

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