Die and you're under arrest! Britain's most stupid laws
Tue Nov 6, 2:19 PM ET
LONDON (AFP) - 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.
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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.
And 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 Crowmell.
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into ancient legislation that has never been repealed although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)
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