Fury over plans to ditch ‘GB’ stickers for driving abroad in ‘slap in the face for proud Brits’
FURY has erupted over plans to ditch ‘GB’ car stickers for Brits driving abroad.
Motorists have described the new ‘UK’ design as a “slap in the face for those proud to be from Great Britain”.
Currently, any Brit wanting to drive in another country must put a sticker denoting ‘GB’ on their vehicle – except if their number plate already features the initials underneath the Union Flag.
But the Government has decided to change the rules – for the second time in months.
From September 28, the letters ‘UK’ must be shown on any British car travelling abroad.
Ian Liddell-Grainger, Tory MP for Bridgwater and West Somerset, described the new design as a “slap in the face” for people who are proud to be British.
He also said the whole thing was a huge waste of time and a poor use of money during the financially draining pandemic.
Mr Liddell-Grainger told MailOnline: “That is a bit bloody rum.
“I can’t see the point. It seems to me to be a complete waste of money when we don’t need to be wasting money.
“It also seems to be a slap in the face for people who are proud to be GB.
“It is a waste of time, a waste of money. I don’t know why we are bothering.”
The AA described the move, which was settled on in May but not announced, leaving them feeling left “in the lurch” as stocks of some 50,000 ‘GB’ stickers are now completely worthless.
Number plate suppliers are also outraged that stocks of ‘GB’ number plates are now useless, and new ‘UK’ ones could take up to six months to come in.
AA president Edmund King described the decision to scrap the “famed” GB logo from number plates as a blow to Britain’s motoring heritage.
He told The Telegraph: “From a heritage point of view, we have lots of classic cars, such as Jaguars, Spitfires, and so on, that have metal GB signs on the rear of the car.
“Now I don’t propose that they take them off but what they will now have to do is have a tacky plastic UK sticker alongside it.
“So from a historic perspective, we have lost the tax disk on the windscreen and we are now losing another element of British motoring, the famed GB sticker.”
‘SLAP IN THE FACE’
He also highlighted the devastating impact this extra waste could have on the environment as plastic stickers are not easily recyclable.
“What can you do with a used GB sticker? Maybe Wetherspoons can use them as beer mats, or we can sell them to anyone with the initials, maybe Gordon Brown or Gareth Bale, but that’s a very niche market,” Mr King added.
The change comes just months after ministers unveiled another new design which scrapped the EU stars.
Opting for ‘UK’ is meant to be more inclusive of Northern Ireland, which is not part of Great Britain (consisting of England, Wales and Scotland).
The Government hopes it will send a message of unity amid the UK-EU “sausage war”, The Sunday Times reports.
It will be a legal requirement to slap the sticker on your car, and rule flouters could face fines. These will be down to the individual countries.
It means many Brit drivers will be forced to fork out for entirely new number plates, or order ‘UK’ stickers.
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And those who ordered Transport Secretary Grant Shapps’ Brexit design at the start of 2021 will need to buy a UK sticker to put alongside it to make it legal.
Detailed public information about the new rules are not yet available, but a letter from the UK Government to the United Nations said: “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’.
“This change will take effect on 28 September 2021.”
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