GB On Vehicle Number Plate Must Be Changed To UK!

I can see why the stickers with the stars need to be removed, but we've been GB for years. I don't get it.

Great Britain is the biggest island in the British Isles. GB and UK are not the same. I am surprised that our Olympic team and Paralympic team were branded GB.

The UK is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Have the NI politicians asked for this change?

"The move was only revealed by the United Nations which said it had received "a notification stating that the United Kingdom is changing the distinguishing sign that it had previously selected for display in international traffic on vehicles registered in the United Kingdom, from 'GB' to 'UK'"."

From the linked article.

Oh the joys of Brexit are never ending.

Could it be a pre-emptive strike against any move by Scotland towards independence and the removal of one of the two kingdoms which were united to form the UK?

Ah, yes. "A Department for Transport spokesperson said: "Changing the national identifier from GB to UK symbolises our unity as a nation and is part of a wider move towards using the UK signifier across government." bbc.com

Well someone needs to tell the AA shop before we all go buying a defunct one for £4.98.

Maybe they will reduce them?

It’s really going from bad to worse!
Unbelievably useless exercise and we should all wonder to whom the contract was given to!!!!

Incidentally, the word "must" in one of the sentences in that BBC link is at odds with the word "guidance" in another. Guidance is not obligatory.

(the emphasis in black is mine)

"British motorists driving outside the UK must now remove old-style GB stickers or cover them up.

Instead they should display a UK sticker or have the UK identifier on their number plate.

The UK government guidance has been in place since Tuesday 28 September."

EU will not now accept GB stickers, so if you want to travel by car it will have to change. I read about this about 2 months ago after seeing it on general news items on internet, Still more inclusive of NI which is a good thing.

There has been a anomaly for years in Northern Ireland. Cars there do not have the blue stripe with stars and GB - just a plain number plate containing either Z or I as part of reg. Like the rest of UK, rear plates are yellow. Republic of Ireland has white plates front and back with the blue stripe and IRL.

We recently took a ferry from Dublin to France, and there were a number of NI cars on the trip. Most of them had no country identifier, apart from a few with IRL sticker, which is incorrect.

I suspect that some in NI won’t be rushing to get UK stickers - the current number plates with no country identifier are probably a political compromise.

Otherwise they might not let cars in to Europe.