Silly English and UK Laws

Last week UKTV Gold of all people, polled some 4,000 people to determine Englands silliest laws. Many of the laws were from a reference book: “The Strange Laws of Old England” authored by Nigel Cawthorne. ((US Link))

Of the many absurd laws that the UK has left on its statute books, these were voted the best:

1) Dying in the Houses of Parliament is illegal. This is apparently to prevent the enforcement of another law which states that anyone dying in the Houses of Parliament is entitled to a state funeral.

2) Putting a stamp bearing the Queens Head upside down on an envelope is an act of Treason.

3) You are not allowed to eat Mince Pies on Christmas day. Thanks apparently go to Oliver Cromwell during the English Civil war for this one.

4) A pregnant woman is legally entitled to spend a penny anywhere she likes if caught short.

5) Dead whales washed up anywhere on the British coast automatically become the property of the Crown. Specifically the tail goes to the Queen, and the head to the King.

6) You must tell the tax man anything that you do not wish him to know, but it’s ok not to tell him anything you don’t mind him finding out.

7) If you are wearing a full blown suit of armour, it is illegal to enter the Houses of Parliament.

What a crazy world we live in, and it gets worse. This week there was “The Queens Speech” where the Queen of England sets out the legislation that is going to be enacted in the next session of Parliament. One of Gordon Browns proposed new laws was extra legislation to reduce red-tape on small businesses.

I can see what he’s trying to do there, but I don’t think he’s quite twigged, that if you want to reduce the bureaucratic burden on business, you need to remove laws, not add new ones!  Better luck next time Gordon.

{ 8 comments… add one }
  • shacarria 10 September 2008, 9:03 pm

    wat kind of laws do you people have that is not good cause this shit is cazy boom zoom zam bam

    lady nick gone

  • alexandria 21 January 2009, 1:36 pm

    i just found out that another silly law is that you are not allowed to beat a doormat after 8pm!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    how much more absurd can you get???

  • Rob 1 February 2009, 2:56 pm

    Ermm good site… Only on the last comment its not 8pm its 8am 🙂

  • Liam 8 October 2009, 8:24 am

    You must tell the tax man anything that you do not wish him to know, but it’s ok not to tell him anything you don’t mind him finding out. This is totally ridiculous it makes no sense and it seems to me that someone jst wanted to feel big for making a law.

    If you are wearing a full blown suit of armour, it is illegal to enter the Houses of Parliament. This is a stupid law, I think that someone just made this up because they didn’t like the person in the armour.

    Putting a stamp bearing the Queens Head upside down on an envelope is an act of Treason. I think this law is totally stupid. I think someone just made this up because they wanted to suck up to the queen.

    Dying in the Houses of Parliament is illegal. I think this was just made up so they didn’t have to pay the caretaker.

  • jimmeyyy 24 October 2009, 11:09 pm

    i got 1

    you cant sell a carrot on sunday lol

  • ashley tamplin 10 June 2010, 11:47 am

    hey diggy dog check out my bling yo!!

  • bob 16 September 2011, 4:39 pm

    i got one,
    a pineapple bigger than a jack russel automaticly belongs to the queen

  • james 15 November 2011, 3:43 pm

    a pregnant woman can take a wiz where ever she wants that includes a police mans hat

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.