Top 10 stupid British laws

[Cerberus]

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)

[Brittany]

LOL good to know

[Tailspnr]

Ahhhhh....yeaaahhhh......I think I'll sleep better tonight knowing this...LOL!

[MONTY]

Oh yes, there's hours of entertainment to be had from checking out the 2,000+ years-worth of legislation here in GB. The problem is, most of these laws made sense when they were passed (though some of them I dunno ...!), but if they don't get repealed at the appropriate time then hundreds of years later, in a very different time, they can be ludricrous!
Here's another one: You can kill a Welshman if you find him within the city walls of Chester after sun-down, just so long as you use a crossbow (not a long bow? or a big heavy club? go figure ...).
Also, a few years back, a guy in Scotland (Glasgow I think) had been arrested for an armed robbery of a bank. His brief discovered that the law permitting trial by combat had never been repealed. So he threw down the gauntlet (literaly!) and claimed his right to be tried by a fight to the death with the Queen's representative in those parts, which just happened to be Lord Leitenant somebody or other of somewhere, a crusty 70-odd year old guy who had difficulty getting out of his armchair never mind engaging in armed combat! Fortunately for the sake of law and order, the CPS dug even deeper into the statute books and found that the gauntlet had to be thrown down at the place of trial - i.e. the court room - which in fact it hadn't, so they got round it, tried him properly (he got a long stretch!), and quickly got the law repealed.
Oh, and thoughout the country you have to wear a helmet to approved design standards whenever you ride a motorbike. Oh no, wait, that's a modern one isn't it ... (well, about 1973 I think it was).
But surpassing all these: since John Major signed the Treaty of Mastricht back in 1996-ish, EU law - passed in Brussels by the (non-elected) European Commissioners - takes presedence over British Law! So not only do we no longer claim soveriegnty over our own land, we're subjugated to a non-democratic system!!! My own argument, as yet un-tested in court (!), is that the governance of the country was not John Major's to sign away, but was merely on loan for the duration of his tenure as prime-minister, so at the most this change would only be effective until the next election, and so is long gone ... i reckon ...

Wooo ... got a bit of steam up there, eh? better go and lie down in a dark room for a while ...

[Avenger]

What's the penalty if you die in Parlament? Do they send the body to jail?

[Cerberus]

Originally Posted by Avenger

What's the penalty if you die in Parlament? Do they send the body to jail?

they put you in dead girls gone wild videos as a stand in.

[MONTY]

Here's a couple more:

A hackney carriage (that's the type of taxi you can hail rather than having to book in advance) until recently HAD to be black in colour, and they still are obliged to carry a bale of hay in the trunk - that was for the benefit of the horse of course, and nobody takes any notice any more, it's just that it's never been repealed.
Also, for his own relief during a long day, it is permitted for the driver of a hackney carriage to urinate in public as long as he does so against one of the offside wheels of his vehicle, so being away from the pavement (sidewalk in US-speak) where pedestrians might be offended!

When they changed the law to allow gay men to have sex together, they didn't actually repeal the law against soddomy, but made specific legislation to permit it between consenting males over the age of 21 (I think that's been brought down to 18 recently).
The result of this is that I could legally nip out and give the fella living next-door a good bumming, as long as we were both so inclined ... which we're not! But if I were to flip the wife over and slip the salami up her poo-chute I'd actually still be breaking the law!!

[NoTolerance]

Originally Posted by MONTY

carry a bale of hay in the trunk

I think you're a fake. All you EUs call it a "boot", not a "trunk".

[jaws]

Originally Posted by NoTolerance

I think you're a fake. All you EUs call it a "boot", not a "trunk".

Only if their native tongue is English A boot in Dutch or German for example is a boat or ship.

[MONTY]

Originally Posted by NoTolerance

I think you're a fake. All you EUs call it a "boot", not a "trunk".

Ah, i only used the word trunk 'cos i thought if i typed "boot" then 50% of American readers wouldn't know what the hell i was on about! Actually, i think we originally called it a trunk too, at least at the time when a hackney carriage had a horse shackled to the front of it rather than a diesel engine under its bonnet (sorry, "hood")!

Anyway, don't call me an "EU" - we were never balloted on whether we wanted that git Major to sign up for Mastricht (as far as I’m concerned he acted illegally), nor have we been balloted on the proposed EU constitution (now camouflaged as another "treaty"). As far as I’m concerned I’m a Brit – a Scot to be precise – and they’ll prise the union jack from my cold dead hands!