Watch where you choose to die
Offence of dying within the Houses of Parliament voted most ridiculous law
Did you know there is a law making it an offence if you die while in the Houses of Parliament?
This little-known prohibition has been voted the UK’s most ludicrous piece of legislation by the viewers of UKTV Gold, alongside other gems such as it being a treasonable offence to use a postage stamp upside down (the runner up), and a ban on eating mince pies on Christmas Day, enacted during the time of Oliver Cromwell.
The law that got viewers’ vote for the third most absurd piece of legislation was a rule that only a "clerk" in a tropical fish store is allowed to go topless in public in Liverpool.
Other rules still on the statute book include bans on entering the Houses of Parliament while wearing a suit of armour, firing a cannon close to a dwellinghouse and driving cattle through the streets of London.
And if someone knocks on your door in Scotland requiring the use of your toilet, you must let them in, while murdering a Scotsman within the ancient city walls of York is perfectly legal – if he is carrying a bow and arrow.
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