Bumper Brexit? Drivers with Welsh flag number plates to be forced to use ‘UK’ sticker when abroad
Number plates in Wales displaying the Welsh dragon or Cymru symbols will be forced to add new ‘UK’ stickers when driving abroad.
The new rule that will come in on 28 September will only apply to those with a Euro symbol or Welsh, Scottish or England flag on their number plate – or who have no flag identifier at all.
Only numberplates with the Union Jack on them will be exempt from the rule change.
Commentators have slammed the UK Government for bringing in the ‘zero gain’ new rule, which is thought to be to bring Northern Ireland into the regulations.
But there has been speculation that the move is due to many people having numberplates with both ‘GB’ and the ‘EU’ flags on them.
This is purely culture war BS so people need to actually go out of their way to get rid of these pic.twitter.com/tz7XWtQhEv
— Chris Miller (@chrismiller_uk) September 26, 2021
Edwin Hayward author of ‘Slaying Brexit Unicorns’ tweeted: “For absolutely no reason other than because they can, the Tories have decided all car number plates in the UK have to switch from “GB” to “UK” identifiers come the 28th of September 2021 for anyone who wants to travel abroad.
“Cost and hassle for zero gain.”
Display
Drivers can currently display flags on the left-hand side of the number plate such as the Red Dragon of Wales, the Cross of St Andrew – also known as the Saltire, Union flag (also known as the Union Jack) or the Cross of St George.
The currently permitted identifiers are:
- CYMRU, Cymru, CYM or Cym
- WALES or Wales
- SCOTLAND, Scotland, SCO or Sco
- ENGLAND, England, ENG, Eng
- GREAT BRITAIN, Great Britain or GB
- UNITED KINGDOM, United Kingdom or UK
The flag must be above the identifier, must not be on the number plate margin, and neither can be more than 50 millimeters wide.
The UK government website states that drivers may need a GB sticker or a UK sticker to drive outside the UK depending on when and where they’re driving.
They are not required in Ireland, or if the number plate displays the Union Flag, but when driving in Spain, Cyprus or Malta, a UK sticker must be displayed no matter what is on the number plate.
Support our Nation today
For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.
There must be a room full of people in Westminster beavering away at thinking up things to annoy us…like the Henry 11 thing !
Who takes a car to Malta, you can walk round it in a day. When I was there they still had those beautiful old buses !
Anybody would think they want to break up the so-called ‘union’.
Makes me support independence for Wales even more, the same thing with driving licences now
The same room full of dopey types who dreamt up the idea that working in UK driving a truck for 3 months leading up to Xmas then having to buzz off back to EU will be attractive to truckers already gainfully employed. Collective thickness beyond measurement !
Is this a demand from the EU, or individual member states? If not, and it’s purely Tory idiocy, then mass disobedience could stymie enforcement.
In any case it would only be a minor offence, and I’m sure those who would be expected to enforce the rule are far too busy with other things.
Those electric scooters that seem to be proliferating despite not being road legal, or their riders in possession of a driving licence, insurance and the vehicle registered are a far more serious concern and yet the law isn’t being enforced there.
I assumed it must be an individual EU member state thing otherwise why no need for a sticker in France or Germany etc.. Also, who is going to stop and fine the drivers? Not the UK police because they will be back here! So it must be the police in Spain, Cyprus and Malta, even though Malta is British?? Another example of the government not making things clear and confusing everybody.
Malta is an independent country. It is most definitely not British.
With GB leaving the EU it was always going to become necessary to create a new identifier for UK cars, hence UK.
Yet another peripheral and unconsidered consequence of Brexit.
You misunderstand. This is being enforced by the British government. The European Union isn’t calling for it, and license plates don’t require flags period.
Brexit’s got nothing to do with it.
More Unionist jackboot diplomacy. If it’s not demanding Union Flags be draped over everything in Wales, now Gestapo-like want to taint our Y Ddraig Goch by enforcing their imperialist banner on our Welsh licence plates. To counter this. I want the Senedd to pass a law that requires drivers from England to place a Welsh Flag sticker on their number plates when crossing our border. No doubt with my suggestion the reactionary Tories led by Andrew RT ” I cannot differentiate between Brexit & Breakfast” Davies along with his Whitehall-loving whingers in the Senedd, would most certainly lambast this idea,… Read more »
007 type plates if you live in Llanymynech…
Yes, a possibility. And I’d put an ejector charge under every Tory Senedd seat, then launch the little buggers over the border into England where they belong. But no doubt they’d find their way back and add the cost of the trip onto their expenses.
English flags aren’t allowed either. This isn’t exclusively anti-welsh as the headline suggests, it’s anti-nation.
You’re forgetting that the most prominent part of the Onion Jack is the English flag of St George – which is superimposed on top of the others – we offcourse are not even represented on their so called uonion flag!
Whilst I’m certainly no Tory, your comment is a bit confusing. Even before Brexit, when driving abroad in the EU, if you had a CYM number plate, you were still required to have a ‘GB’ sticker, as per EU Rules. This has always been the standard. The change to ‘UK’ stickers is simply to better include Northern Ireland, and is only required by EU Countries when travelling abroad. You are not required to have the Union Flag at all, or ever put on a UK sticker if you never drive your car in the EU. So what seems to be… Read more »
Hang on…the UK government setting rules for something outside the UK? What? Surely it’s a matter for the government of the country being visited?
I’ve long thought about replacing my number plates and this is the last straw. I’ll be getting full Scottishized number plates tomorrow and HELL MEND THEM!!!
I refuse to remove my HAY sticker which indicates that I am a citizen of the independent kingdom.
God in Heaven who will enforce this nonsense.
This summer has seen a massive increase in vehicles with modified number plates that really are such that the vehicle has no insurance and by implication no lawful taxation or MoT.
To my knowledge they appear to have total exemption from law enforcement
Please quote the law which states that an illegal number plate invalidates the driver’s tax, MOT and insurance. Of course, you won’t be able to do this, because you are talking absolute nonsense.
Dan Hutson, Head of Motor Insurance at Compare the Market, has warned any illegal modifications risks “invalidating” insurance. “Modifications which are against the law are likely to invalidate any type of car insurance policy, so do your research beforehand.” He should know.
Check you insurance policy small print.
Waffle from an insurance salesman isn’t law. Please try again.
I very much doubt if a European traffic cop is going to want to enforce Johnson’s latest bright idea for him. So the only point at which it is relevant is when clearing English customs inward and outward bound. Might I suggest the necessary UK sticker, held to the car by magnetic strips, put in place just before clearing customs and removed just after? They are already used for L plates, after all.
The last, desperate scramblings of a regime which knows its days are numbered
No problem….if I ever go abroad, i’ll cover it with a Welsh sticker when I get off the ferry. My car will display what I want it to display – thank you !
Very weird. If you’re in a foreign country, one must respect their rules, which include the sticker for the sovereign nation the car is registered to, i.e. ‘UK’.
You can of course have a Welsh sticker in addition to it if you wish.
Read the article. It’s not ‘their’ rule – it’s the Tories. So ‘they’ aren’t going to enforce it – no-one is.
Yawn. This has been the case for decades.
If so, does it mean it has to continue?
If I use my black marker pen to add an “F” before and a “C” between the letters of UK, will that be okay?
Culture war?
It’s the LAW you signed up for, debated on, voted on and ratified.
You won.
Now go and be happy.
Could someone please design an accompanying sticker reading:-
Or simply:-