Q. I inherited a personalised number plate acquired 40 years
ago for a few pounds which is now on a small car which I keep in London. It has been a source of much amusement. It would be as ridiculous to remove it to avoid the strictures you attach to owners of personalised number plates (15 March) as selling a stately home because pop stars also now own them.
P., Zimbabwe A. Thank you for your comment but the context is different. For a Peer of the Realm to have a personalised number plate in 1960-something is quite different to his having one today. In those days it would have been emblematic of non-pomposity. Today it would suggest the opposite: that you are pleased with yourself and clearly a non-hereditary. In your own case you are quite right not to remove the number plate. Its vintage makes it still perfectly acceptable.
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