USA Jumps on the Private Number Plates Ban Wagon

Regular readers (oh, come on... there must be a couple of you by now) will recall earlier posts about the DVLA's knee jerk bans of registration numbers which resemble rude, embarrassing or offensive words. Well, when I say resemble, I mean they sort of do, a bit, if you squint and really exercise a bit of imagination. Seriously, some of the withheld and withdrawn plates could cause offense, but more of them reall bear very little resemblance to anything, and one has to wonder if the DVLA is getting a bit too nervous for its own good.

Still, if their censorship trigger finger is a bit on the twitchy side, they aren't the only ones. The Michigan Secretary of State's office in the USA keeps a list of about 8,000 "bad words" which reportedly covers 27 printed pages. These are words that will not be approved for use on "vanity" plates.

Amongst the supposedly bad words are: H8BUSH, SMOKPOT, BLOODS, COCAINE, 1KILL4U, ALQAIDA and 38DD. We'll leave you to figure them out for yourselves, but don't worry, there are no particularly cryptic combinations there. As with cases in the UK, the indisputably banworthy mix with the relatively harmless.

About 35,000 number plates are issued annually in Michigan and about 350 applications for certain character combinations are declined.

It's A Personalised Plates Knockout!

As you may well have noticed by now, King of The Ring Amir Khan is starring in his own new television programme on Wednesday nights. Amir, who received a set of personalised plates from us recently, is faced with a group of young tear-aways and is given the challenge of reforming them.

Amir, who has been cited as a role model for all teenage boys was given his ultimate numberplate by Regtransfers - BOX 111G. He said: "When you see a nice car you always have a look at the number plate. It just finishes it off."

Amir has ploughed £700,000 of his own money into forming a community gym where he runs an intensive four-week course for youths with a criminal or violent history, and his television programme, Amir Khan's Angry Young Men is shown each Tuesday evening on Channel 4 at 11.05pm.

New DVLA Private Number Plates Released

With September comes the falling leaves and rain (which, incidentally, we've had all summer but that's for another blog post). For those planning to splash out on a new car in the coming months, it also means you can register your brand new set of DVLA private number plates.

As per usual, there's a whole host of fun and interesting combinations that can be made from the new '57' series of plates. Take JU57 MEN, CA57 WAY, and BU57 OUT as your starter for ten. However, my personal favourites have to be the new 'Master' plates. Following the format MA57 ER?, you can replace the question mark with your initial or chosen letter and have your very own 'Master' plate. Those in the clergy, however, may choose to opt for PA57 OUR or PA57 OOR as their DVLA private number plate of choice. A similarly clever plate for a man of the cloth would be MU57 WED - a number plate sure to raise more than a wry smile from members of the parish. Whilst a snooker player may have BE57 CUE adorning his car, an owner of a bed shop may opt for CO57 BED (remembering that '7' can also represent a 'Y' on car number plates).

As can often happen, there's one DVLA private number plate in the new series which would allow the owner to poke fun at himself in a rather ironic way. WE57 BOY (Wesy Boy) is available from 1st September (people from West Yorkshire are often referred to as 'wessies' by those nearer the coast). There's literally hundreds of fun combinations that can be made with the new series - far too many for me to list here. There's work to be done...

Never mind the number plates... Here's an iPod!

Me again... I knew that once I'd popped I would inevitably be unable to stop.

Numberplates.com has just launched a brand new number plates competition where you can win yourself a brand new 4GB iPod Nano. All you need to do is submit pictures of cars bearing personalised number plates. Simple, eh?

As we all know, there are literally hundreds of personalised number plates in every town, so next time you see one, take a snap and submit it for the competition. You never know - you could just win yourself an iPod!

Click here to enter the competition

An introduction from Adam

Well, after putting up with various mickey-taking posts (here, and here) from your regular blogger, I decided that now would probably be a good time to explain what it is that I actually do here (sometimes I even work, y'know...).

Alongside our world-famous Regtransfers.co.uk website, we also maintain the world's largest online number plates club. Well, I do anyway. A large part of the job consists of trawling the web for the latest news stories surrounding the world of personalised number plates. Believe me - it's a lot harder than it sounds. I know, I know - "But the subject of car number plates is one of the most fascinating in the world!", I hear you cry. Although I'm contractually obliged to bite my tongue and agree with you, the fact remains that not a whole lot happens in this industry.

One of the greatest aspects of running the website is the interaction that comes with it. The site has its own members' forum which adds a whole new dimension of interactivity. It's great that likeminded enthusiasts can come together and discuss the subject that they love. God, I sounded like I meant that, didn't I?

If you have even a passing interest in car registrations, it really is worth checking out Numberplates.com. It trumps all other online resources for the sheer amount of information and detail on the history of the British registration system as well as being updated daily with all the latest news. It's all very exciting. Honestly.

Number Plate Censorship Fever Spreads!

We recently reported that the DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority) had banned the SN07 number plate series in Scotland, supposedly because people might be offended by its resemblance to the word "snot", and were considering doing the same with the SN08 ("snob") series next year. A while later we told you of a further exercise in prissy censorship when various other combinations were withdrawn, also for fear that they might cause offence.

While we thought the banning of SN07 and SN08 displayed a rather oversensitive nature, we did see the arguments for a couple of the later withdrawals. On the other hand, some of the others in that batch baffled us even more than the earlier excisions.

Not the kind of people to be put of by criticism or mockery, the ever-vigilant DVLA have withdrawn yet another batch of UK car registration numbers that they consider potentially offensive. The combinations at issue this time are: CNT, FRT, CUM, FKC, CUN, AST and BNP.

The only combination we see a possible argument for banning is BNP. While we resent the fact that a distasteful nationalist organisation could possibly get political mileage (no pun intended) out of vehicles bearing their initials, we do acknowledge the remote possibility. People may find the combination offensive especially if it were affixed to a vehicle driven by an evident racist lout (we understand that such people have occasionally managed to infiltrate the BNP).

But, whether we like it or not (and your correspondent leans towards "not"), the BNP is a "valid" UK political party. Is it appropriate for a publicly funded, government organisation, such as DVLA, to discriminate against one political party? Even broadcasters have to allow equal opportunity, do they not? Will DVLA now be banning LAB, CON and SDP combinations?

As for the others, well, once again we would suggest that smut is in the eye or the mind of the beholder, and in some cases that smutty mind would have to work pretty hard to rearrange or insert letters in order to take offence.

It is largely the seemingly knee-jerk and arbitrary nature of the bans and the inconsistent quality of policy that bemuses us. DVLA was quite happy to issue some very, very obvious fun registrations a while ago. PEN 15 and ORG 45M require neither anagram manipulation nor adding of characters to achieve harmless comic effect, and PEE and POO numbers have been regular and unchallenged releases.

Of course, this lofty censorship is nothing new. DVLA has been withholding, withdrawing and banning various character combinations from number plates since the beginning of the 20th Century. Amongst those combinations famously withdrawn was BF which was progressively withdrawn between 1904 and 1921 because it stood for "bloody fool". Seems absurd now, doesn't it?

Times may change, but it would seem that the archaic, BA57 ARD offspring of Mary Whitehouse and Orwell's thought police is alive and well in Swansea.

Delusions of Grandeur...

You've seen our fantastic free magazine, Regtransfers.co.uk: The World of Personal Numberplates... Er, you have seen it, haven't you? After all, you only have to ask and we send you a copy for nowt. If that isn't a bargain I don't know what is. The last couple of issues have featured interviews with Vinnie Jones and Amir Khan. Terrific stuff.

You'll remember Adam, who you met in this post...

Well, I'm afraid he is becoming a bit of a dreamer. After seeing the last couple of covers for our great mag, Adam is getting ideas above his station. I came back from lunch today to find him in deep consultation with Barry, our designer. He looked a little sheepish, and upon further investigation I discovered why.

Adam has decided that he can, quite effortlessly, give Messrs. Jones and Khan a run for their money and he reckons that he can out-bloke the two of them put together. Barry really should have known better, but here is what Adam had asked him to do.

If you absolutely must, you may click the image to see a larger version. Personally I'd rather click to see a smaller, or better yet no, version.


Anyway, no problem. We have initiated a corrective programme to restore Adam's sense of perspective. He is outside washing cars.

As for that magazine cover... All I'll say is, don't hold your breath. Somewhere would have to freeze over before we'd pay good money to publish that.

Cute Car, Cute Number Plates

Here's one I saw last night.

Mrs RT Blogger and I popped out to a local pub for dinner as it was her birthday. As we left I saw this car near ours in the car park. Cute, innit?

Can't help thinking that the driver is probably a lady. I don't know what makes me feel that. Just call me psychic. It's an uncanny, almost clairvoyant, knack I have for divining the unknown...

Only problem is that I reckon the wife is getting ideas about pink cars and private number plates for a future birthday. It's that supernatural sense again: I can read her mind. Actually, it's a mutual thing. She can read mine too, but she just doesn't bother. She says it's a bit thin on plot...

A Number Plate That Really Kicks Butt

On Saturday 4th August, a fellow in Hong Kong spent $40,000 HKD on private number plates. The registration he chose was BRUCELEE.

Even now, more than 30 years after Lee's death, the legendary martial artist and film star is a huge hero in China and many South East Asian countries, as well as an iconic example acknowledged by martial artists across the world.

We don't have any information about the purchaser of the Bruce Lee number plates in Hong Kong, other than that he is reportedly a Mr Wong, and that he is quoted as saying:

"When I studied in England, foreigners would only know two Chinese people. One is Bruce Lee. The other is Chairman Mao. You can imagine how great Bruce Lee is, how big of an impact he had on the Chinese, even until today."