DVLA Censorship Gathers Pace

Not the kind of people to be put of by criticism or mockery, the ever-vigilant DVLA have withdrawn yet another batch of UK car registration numbers that they consider potentially offensive.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.

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.

The exception is, of course the BNP combination. While, at heart, we would be only too happy to see this combination kept off the streets, the principle at issue seems a little risky. Should a government agency, funded by public money, be discriminating against a legal, if unpleasant, political party? Combinations of letters such as LAB and CON are in unhindered circulation.

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 Amongst those combinations famously withdrawn was BF which was progressively withdrawn between 1904 and 1921 because it stood for "bloody fool".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?

This issue is getting quite a lot of coverage in national and local press and Regtransfers.co.uk's Adam Croft was a recent guest on a BBC radio discussion of the topic.

Vehicle Registration Marks Act 2007