Do we not know who we are?
Let me start by saying that this post is not intended in any way to be political.
Seeing my neighbour putting a UK sticker on the back of his car made me wonder why we have changed from GB. For as far back as I can remember, (and I'm now 75), and before we were in / out of the EU or its predecessor, vehicles have displayed a GB sticker when going overseas but now we have a sudden change to a UK identifier. Why?
As a country ( and I use that word in its broadest sense), in recent centuries we have been know as Britain, Great Britain, the British Isles and the United Kingdom as well as the more specific England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland with the inhabitants of those countries being referred to as English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish, not United Kingdomish. At the moment, with nationalism in the various countries being promoted by sizeable numbers of residents it seems to me that we are anything but a United Kingdom. So this brings me back to the original question, why change vehicle identifiers from GB to UK? If we are now beholden to no-one except ourselves, why change? It seems to me that we don't know who we are.
Comments
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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.
"We notified the UN of our intention to make these changes in July, and have been working with the sector to implement the change.I'm personally not bothered at all and don't see it as not knowing who we are? Great Britain is more of a geographical term for me.
I'm more upset that I can't use the old joke about the difference between L plates and GB plates.
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We simply go with a White Rose sticker, a black and white cross sticker, and a chequerboard red and yellow sticker😁 The Northumbrians think we might be Cornish, the Cornish think we might be Northumbrian, and we have home well covered as well😁
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GB doesn't include Northern Ireland. UK includes England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
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Hi TDA, And, if our experience is anything to go by, lots of people will confuse St Pirans with Saltire!
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Oh wow! This is dangerous ground. But very, very welcome to avoid blandness.
I could not agree more, especially with your final words, which I could have written myself.
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I don’t doubt to be honest. It’s a sad fact, but there are some very ill informed people, reading the wrong kind of information and passing it off as undoubted truths, out there at the moment. Not helped by a general political system that’s is badly in need of reform all round.
Morally bankrupt.
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I'm quite proud that we didn't go down the route favoured by EU countries and make ourselves dependent on fuel from a predatory nation, we've gone out alone on this and we should be proud of our stance and our intentions to cut down on CO2. I doubt this has got much to do with the present government so my post is not intended to be political. UK or GB doesn't matter to me. By the way we've been putting up street flags for the Jubilee, ours include the Union Jack, the county we both came from, the present county we live in and the Canadian flag (my Dad's place of upbringing.) Oh and a flying penguin has joined them all, I don't want to get too serious and I don't take these mutterings too seriously either.
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I thought it was all down to including Northern Ireland, now individual country identifiers (England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland) are not allowed. Great Britain doesn’t I believe include Northern Ireland. We are the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. A UK sticker is therefore more inclusive.
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Didn't Northern Ireland have their own identifier NI? Or am I remembering that wrong? Perhaps it was unofficial?
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Hi all,
If we could try and keep this thread on-track and not political, that would be great.
A reminder of our Community Guidelines:
"We ask that discussions and posts on politics, religion and race are avoided as these discussions can get very heated at times and cause upset to other members who inadvertently stray into these discussion threads."
Many thanks for understanding,
Adam
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Channel Islands, and Isle of Man are still using GB (followed by A, J, G, M etc….) And Gibraltar.
Never owned a vehicle that’s displayed an international code. However, we have fun guessing the Nationality of whatever HGV might be rammed up our rear end occasionally. Bad driving sadly doesn’t have a code of its own.
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I’d preempt the inevitable breaking up of the Union by having-Eng, Sco, Wal stickers on vehicles because I see independence as inevitable, fair & just👍🏻
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We are still getting asked if we are from Ukraine as well. Talk about re-inventing the wheel and all because of the "Orangemen".
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