The Law Commission has proposed the abolition of 800 antiquated laws, but there is a wealth of mythology about what is and isn't illegal.
Can you really be arrested for eating a mince pie on Christmas Day? Are you within your rights to shoot a Welsh person with a longbow on a Sunday in Chester? According to British urban legend, ancient laws could still land you in trouble or, literally, allow you to get away with murder.
As the story goes, everything from sticking a stamp on a letter the wrong way around to driving without a bale of hay in your boot theoretically runs the risk of arrest from an over-zealous police officer.
But most of these legendary laws are just that - legend and not reality.
Some of the laws did exist but have since been overturned. Others, like the ban on boys under the age of 10 seeing a naked mannequin, never quite made it on to the statute books.
So how did people come to believe that enjoying a mince pie could land them in jail and sticking a stamp upside down was tantamount to treason?
Continued here.
Makes for an interesting read.
Edited by CharlieJulietMike, 06 April 2012 - 12:50 PM.
