A Central London royal correspondent reads about Prince William’s three tongue-in-cheek number plates and looks at what the heir actually does while he waits
NOTYET, And Other Truths
The London Prat reports that Prince William has ordered three personalised number plates: NOTYET on the Aston Martin, because he is waiting to be King; NOTHARRY on the Range Rover, because he is avoiding his brother; and DISTASTEFUL on the Bentley, because he disapproves of most things. The plates do not exist. The throne, the piece notes, is the only job in Britain that cannot become vacant through retirement, redundancy or a poor appraisal.
The joke works because it touches something true about the position of the heir. The Prince of Wales has a role that is defined almost entirely by its future. His public life is busy, varied and often admirable, but it is always framed by the question of what comes next. So it seems worth asking, seriously, what the heir actually does while the plate reads NOTYET.
Cricket On The Mall
This week, for example, the Prince joined cricketers from the UK and India for an informal game on The Mall, in front of Buckingham Palace, at an event linked to the Earthshot Prize, the environmental award he founded. Reports described tourists being surprised by the sight of the heir to the throne batting in the road, as noted in the royal news recap for 13 October. It was a good image: relaxed, international, slightly playful, connected to a cause he has championed for years. It was also, in its way, a statement about the kind of monarch he may want to be.
The Earthshot Prize, launched in 2020, awards substantial funding to projects tackling environmental problems, and it has become the most visible signature of William’s public work. Alongside it sit his work on homelessness, mental health and the support of emergency services. These are causes that reflect his own interests and that he can shape personally, rather than inherited patronages.
The Duchy Of Cornwall
The heir also has a significant economic role. As Duke of Cornwall, the Prince of Wales receives the income of the Duchy of Cornwall, a large estate of land and property across England and Wales that generates tens of millions of pounds a year. That income funds his public, charitable and private activities. Since inheriting the Duchy in 2022, William has spoken about using it more actively for social purposes, including addressing homelessness and improving housing standards on Duchy land.
The Duchy has also faced scrutiny, including questions about the rents it charges public bodies and charities, and about whether an estate that pays no corporation tax should be run more like a public trust. Those debates matter, because they shape how the public sees the heir. A prince who is waiting is also a prince who is managing a substantial property business, and that business is a test of his values.
The Family Background
William’s waiting has not been easy in recent years. The cancer diagnoses of both his father and his wife, announced in 2024, placed enormous pressure on him at a time when the monarchy was already stretched. Accounts published in recent days describe how much he relied on his family, including the Princess of Wales’s mother, during that period. Any joke about NOTYET has to sit alongside the reality that the heir has spent recent years watching people he loves face serious illness.
His relationship with his brother, NOTHARRY in the Prat’s version, remains the most closely watched family dynamic in Britain, particularly now that the Sussexes live in the UK. Neither brother is likely to comment publicly. The rest of us will continue to read meaning into every appearance and every absence.
A Modern Heir
What kind of King William will be is, of course, unknowable. But his choices as heir suggest some priorities: a focus on a small number of causes, an emphasis on informal engagement, a protective attitude towards his own children’s privacy and an awareness that the monarchy must justify itself to a younger, more sceptical public. Batting on The Mall is not policy. It is, however, a signal.
On The Plates
Royals have traditionally avoided anything as showy as personalised plates, and the monarch’s official state cars famously carry no number plates at all. The Prat’s three plates are a fantasy precisely because they are so out of character. Nobody expects the Prince to announce his impatience on a Bentley. But the joke lands because the public senses what the plates express: that being next is a strange, long and sometimes frustrating job, done in public, with no fixed end date.
You can follow my reporting on the Prince of Wales and the wider royal family on my author page.
From The Mall
I spoke to a couple of tourists from Mumbai who had happened to be walking past during the cricket game. They said they had expected to see the Changing of the Guard and had instead seen the future King trying to hit a ball over a London taxi. They were delighted. One said it was the best thing they had seen in London. The other said it would make a far better story at home than the guards. Somewhere, I imagine, a palace press officer read that and allowed himself a small, satisfied smile.