Britain's most stupid laws

[tazet]

Queen Elizabeth II's speech in the British parliament Tuesday may have been routine but at least nobody got bored to death. That would have been against the law. Dying in parliament is an offence and is also by far the most absurd law in Britain, according to a survey of nearly 4,000 people by a television channel showing a legal drama series.
Though the lords were clad in their red and white ermine cloaks and ambassadors from around the world wore colourful national costumes, at least nobody turned up in a suit of armour. Illegal.
Other rules deemed utterly stupid included one that permits a pregnant woman to urinate in a policeman's hat and murdering bow-and-arrow-carrying Scotsmen within the city walls of York, northern England.
A law stating that in Liverpool, only a clerk in a tropical fish store is allowed to be publicly topless, was also ridiculous, said a poll of 3,931 people for UKTV Gold television out Tuesday.
Nearly half of those surveyed admitted to breaking the ban on eating mince pies on Christmas Day, which dates back to the 17th century and was originally designed to outlaw gluttony during the rule of the Puritan Oliver Cromwell.
The laws and other regulations were culled from published research into ancient legislation that has never been repealed although subsequent statutes have rendered them obsolete.
Respondents were given a shortlist and asked to vote.

Most ridiculous British law:

1. It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament (27 percent)
2. It is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British monarch upside-down (seven percent)
3. In Liverpool, it is illegal for a woman to be topless except as a clerk in a tropical fish store (six percent)
4. Mince pies cannot be eaten on Christmas Day (five percent)
5. In Scotland, if someone knocks on your door and requires the use of your toilet, you must let them enter (four percent)
6. A pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants, including in a policeman's helmet (four percent)
7. The head of any dead whale found on the British coast automatically becomes the property of the king, and the tail of the queen (3.5 percent)
8. It is illegal to avoid telling the tax man anything you do not want him to know, but legal not to tell him information you do not mind him knowing (three percent)
9. It is illegal to enter the Houses of Parliament in a suit of armour (three percent)
10. In the city of York it is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow (two percent)

[reliantman]

Makes me wonder if some of the old duffers on the back benches snuffed it and no one moved them as they thought they were asleep?

[lunatic]

Arent you still allowed to shoot welsh people if you do it from this side of the river with a bow and arrow? Dont worry VB, the aroows would never reach where you are!

[tazet]

  not heard of that one.

[VALLEYSBOY]

Arent you still allowed to shoot welsh people if you do it from this side of the river with a bow and arrow? Dont worry VB, the aroows would never reach where you are!

hmm but does that mean u would if they could reach? git

[reliantman]

Bad enough having to pay to get back in. 

[VALLEYSBOY]

true...

[harley gazz]

house of lords ,parliment, laws  sounds to me like a shoe repairers convention a right load of old cobblers 

[tazet]

Yes some of it is rubbish but I have to be carefull as my boss is a Lord that still has a seat in the House of Lords. He can be very useful sometimes. If any of the Postal c**p for whatever reason ends up there he is fully filled in on what really goes on in there and he's on the posties sides.

[BikerGran]

A lot of these laws may be rubbish but they are all part of the great British tradition of eccentricity, long may it last say I !  There are strenuous efforts being made to stamp out eccentricity AND Britishness and for my part I trust they will fail!

I'm not a reactionary but in my opinion the House of Lords as it was before TB started on it, did a great job in curbing the worst excesses of whatever govt was in power, and making the govt take another look at legislation before they passed it through.  A lot of the newer laws that get onto the statute book will be seen a few years later as just as daft because they haven't been thought through.

For instance the new law about age discrimination may mean the end to price concessions for OAPs - how stupid is that? (from my POV it's pretty important!)