flutter the dovecotes alarm, startle, or upset a sedate or conventionally minded community.
☞ This expression may come from Shakespeare's Coriolanus: 'like an eagle in a dove-cote, I Fluttered your Volscians in Corioli'. Compare with put the cat among the pigeons (atcat).
1992Daily Telegraph It is however the arrival of Michael Heseltine at the DTI that will flutter the dovecotes most of all.