Sorry, but my goat has been got by lumens, yet again.

I note that recent BMWs in particular are fitted with very white illumination of their rear numberplate.

And now, of course, the Barrys are rushng to keep up...

AFAIK it is illegal "to show a white light to the rear of the vehicle, unless it is reversing", but this evening a mk6 Golf came past me with obviously nonstandard super-white numberplate lamps which were frankly ridiculous:
I don't know if it was because they stood proud of where the normal lamps' direct light would have been shrouded by the bumper, or whether they were just SO bright that they were reflecting off the outer surface of the numberplate itself, but the result was that the actual registration mark was partially unreadable, and two white spots were still visible along with the red spots of the tail-lights when the car was half a mile up the dual carriageway and the rest of it was invisible.

Wonder if he'll actually ever get pulled over by the police? Probably not.

Go round a garden centre and look at the ceramic or plastic cottages or chapels they sell as Christmas ornaments - all with a cosy yellow glow emanating from their windows on a dark winter evening. Would you put a 6-foot fluorescent strip light on the ceiling of your lounge, as though relaxing inside a supermarket's vertical freezer? The way things are going, that's what the Christmas ornaments will be having to mimic in a year or two.
Headlights, if you must, since they potentially offer the driver better visibility, but exactly who is benefiting from the numberplate being lit by the equivalent of two 40W arc lamps?

But I suppose fashion pays no heed to logic. Ach...