IT is difficult to know whether to laugh or to weep over the astonishing tug-of-war that has developed over the No 1 licence plate of the Commissioner of Police. Members of the Legislative Council's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) are arguing that theCommissioner, Mr Li Kwan-ha, is under some unspecified moral obligation to hand his number over for public auction. Mr Li counters that the No 1 plate somehow represents all that is great and noble about the Royal Hongkong Police.

Neither side seems prepared to give way and now it will be left to the Government to decide who will win. The Government would do better to tell both sides to grow up and stop being so foolish.

If Mr Li wants to keep his licence plate, let him keep it. After all, how much would it raise in an auction? $20 million? This is a piffling sum - nothing compared with the consultancy fees that the Government quite happily pays out on even the most minor of public works projects. The members of the PAC should stop this unseemly attempt to score points against the system and set their sights on more important issues.