[steamship]

Saw a similar article earlier today about this and one of the 'theories' was it was partly due to the ****-up with Brexit and the imposition of the Irish Sea Border, and it was the government's way of 'showing' support for the people of Northern Ireland.

Now whether there is any truth in that is debatable, but Northern Ireland has existed as part of the United Kingdom (UK) since 1921, yet despite this, the government have never bothered to notify the United Nations of their desire to change the existing GB designation (since 1910) for vehicles in the UK, which begs the question, why now?

This may seem like sheer lunacy on the government's part (then again...!) to some people, but the history of Northern Ireland has resulted in many people who would not be seen dead with a GB sticker on their car. Personally, I wouldn't want to display a GB sticker but that's because I'm pedantic because NI isn't part of GB (but is part of the UK).

It's nothing more than yet another expense for the motorist who travels abroad because they now need to buy UK stickers, and for some/many, they will also have to replace their number plates that have GB, England, Scotland or Wales designations on them, as I doubt it will be lawful to just cover them with some tape.

As an aside, I can't recall the last time I saw a foreign vehicle displaying any country designation sticker on my travels either here in the UK or Ireland, and always had to rely on the number plate to identify where they came from.