Why do we still need a physical tax disc?

Has there ever been an alternative suggested for the tax disc for cars and motorcycles? With all the advances of ANPR and even bar coding, do we need this pointless piece of paper? Notwithstanding the fiddling about I have to do every year to get the thing onto my motorcycle in a place where no one can readily see it.

Asked on 18 May 2013 by LG, Stamford

Answered by Honest John
Probably not. But we are still so stupid that we have to carry a separate bit of paper for convictions with our photocard licences, instead of simply having the information in a chip in the licence.
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