2 
Ok, so I know that the UK’s rich history means we’ve got a backlog of slightly quirky laws, but most of them (like the infamous “you can shoot a Welshman with a crossbow in the bounds of York“) have long-since been revoked. There’s a fair few still on the books, though, so some (presumably) students with too much free time and a GoPro took it on themselves to break ten of the most ridiculous.
It’s like Mythbusters, but with worse hair. Oh, and it’s funnier. To the best of my knowledge, the police haven’t arrested them….yet.
In case you can’t watch the video, the laws broken are, in order:
- Carrying a plank along a pavement (Metropolitan Police Act 1839)
- Sliding on ice or snow (Metropolitan Police Act 1839)
- Firing a cannon within 300 yards of a dwelling (Metropolitan Police Act 1839)
- Beating or shaking a carpet or rug in the street (except a doormat before 8am) (Metropolitan Police Act 1839)
- Singing profane or obscene songs in the street (Town Police Clauses Act)
- Playing knock-down ginger (!?) (Town Police Clauses Act)
- Being drunk in a pub (Licensing Act 1872)
- Defacing money (Currency and Banknotes Act 1928)
- Handling salmon in suspicious circumstances (Salmon Act 1986)
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Let me tell you, it’s no laughing matter when the Salmon Police catch up with you, they will make your life a swimming hell and legal proceedings are always a up-stream battle.
Tell me about it. I was charged last year with ‘Suspiciously bearing salmon’. Coppers came round my way, smelt something fishy and it all kicked off. Smoked a few of ‘em before I was caught though.
If “Being drunk in a pub” is illegal it would be easier (and more fun) to just lock all the lawbreakers in the pub rather than taking them to the cells. Also how do they define being drunk? if it is by the drink drive limit there are very few people who have not broken this law.
It is illegal. If you are drunk the barman has to not serve you etc…
Sigh. I really hate the internet sometimes.
Very true but luckily for most licencees the police don’t enforce this one too strictly.
Pretty sure the recent changed to the licensing laws changed that (the one that introduced 24 hour lisences)
I used to work in a bar but never got round to getting my licence, but I was having a laugh with my manager one evening over a few bevvies and she said that according to what they told her when she took the licensing exam drunk is classed as anything where it becomes illegal to drive anything up to 2 pints.
But like you said no one enforces it, I only used to worry about underagers and angry drunks. Stop serving them before they start grunting at you, if they then get upset and throw a bottle at you then it is time to drag them out of the bar and make sure they hit the door on the way out.
WTF is knock down ginger?
Finding a ginger haired person (carrot top) and knocking them down
Seriously, (sadly) it’s actually knocking on someones door and running away!
Haha I thought the first haha
Ah knock and run, never heard it called knock down ginger before!
I understand it has many regional name variations
In the South we used to try to combine both my explanations
1839 sounds like a really boring year…. all the good shit was illegal…
The CPS in the UK does not need any actual law specific to a crime, if they want to prosecute you they will and they will find a law to do it under.
Take all the Twitter arrests for one. Some of the laws they were using were not even designed for the purposes in which they were used.
In London the police use ‘terrorist laws’ on a daily basis to harass and arrest people. Laws that were meant to be used sparingly and for terrorism are now used just because of the colour of your skin or the area you are from.
You can put money on it, sometime in the future, to arrest a protester or someone like that the police will say they saw someone “handling salmon in suspicious circumstance” and had to step in.
Im talking about this kind on nonsense http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gytjeMnltQo
I would not recommend visiting London.
She could have been a terrorist!
She was luckily the fashion/beauty police didn’t come along as well
The pre-crime arrests they made during the royal wedding. Basically arresting anyone they thought might hold a lawful protest shows what the MET are like.
They will come to your home, basically kidnap you for a good 24 hours and then dump you back on the street without charge. Why, for your political point of view.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UscFYYCKOxg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UscFYYCKOxg
In the video you posted (twice) the police were acting lawfully as they had been instructed legally to do.
They were very polite and listened to his girlfriends rubbish whilst they waited for him to get dressed.
Instructed by who exactly?
So what if I posted something twice by accident. Are you perfect?
To quote the guardian “According to the high court you no longer need to break the law to be arrested. Have a happy Olympics”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/19/arrest-without-crime-royal-wedding
If you knew your own rights you would know what happened, to arrest people with no crime committed nor intelligence of a crime being planned, just because they have a different view to the majority, it illegal. Not that our courts would rule that way.
They also arrested a kid for having a pen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxCB4Vq7ZPs
and some people who dressed like zombies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liSfECc5tzA
So yeah if you think its ok for the police to snatch people off the street for their views then you have nothing to worry about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbE_zB14X9I
Might also have to remind you of those climate protesters that were arrested and nearly jailed until that undercover copper came forward and said it was all lies, the police were withholding evidence and while undercover they did some very suspect / illegal things that now have to be heard in a closed court. Very democratic.
On and it came out today EDF was lobbying ministers ( again a bit illegal ) to have the protesters receive harsh sentences.
Quoting The Guardian at me…..wow, you’ve never read my posts have you!
Of course things go on that shouldn’t but our society is a damn sight better than most; if you don’t like it, move elsewhere.
I find that to always be the lowest retort to this particular subject. “if you don’t like it, move elsewhere”. Thats a very authoritarian, programmed response to any political or social status quo.
Apart from that being the opposite to democracy, which you seem to defend at its supports our society, a better reply would be to try to change it.
I tried being nice…..
You appear to be the sort that supports self-confessed anarchists who claim to just be exercising their right to: freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom to protest, freedom of movement whilst affording themselves the freedom to avoid working for a living, the freedom to receive benefits, (previously the freedom to squat in other peoples properties because ‘ownership is theft’) and the freedom to decry the laws, policies and rules of the society the society they live in when they see fit and cry ‘foul’ and seek redress at the smallest slight, seeking recompense from those same authorities they claim not to recognise.
As I said before I’m sure there are things going on that shouldn’t but people have to recognise NO society is perfect because people aren’t perfect and idiots who go round wanting to shout at William and Kate on their wedding day through a megaphone because the idiot doesn’t think we should be in Iraq/Afghanistan or wherever should expect to be kept away from the area.
The police and security services don’t have the time, manpower or legal powers to thoroughly investigate every person (and people like you would cry ‘invasion of privacy’ if they did) so they have to keep a general eye out and take measures against known ‘potential threats’.
If megaphone man had had his way and protested then not only would it have possibly marred a young couple’s wedding day (neither of whom decided to invade anywhere) but a) he could have been nuttier and caused some violence or b) his antics could have been used by others to commit some other ‘spectacle’.
Take the London riots following the death of Mark Duggan, do you feel they were justified? Was that concerned citizens trying to ‘change democracy’? No, it was scum taking advantage of a situation they had no real interest in. Do we see riots when one gang member shoots or stabs another? Of course not, but a police officer in a split second acts and people like you protest either by rioting or speaking out.
Look at Dale Cregan, kills (allegedly) 2 men, then kills (admitted) 2 police women….what if the police had been armed and shot him a split second before he shot at them….would we have riots, would we have his weeping family saying he was a good man, his kids loved him and would you be waving The Guardian in my face saying “this is proof we live in an unjust society!”
I don’t know your age or background but as you get older / wiser you’ll realise that my “if you don’t like it, move elsewhere” isn’t a lowly retort, it’s actually realistically the only true option.
There are many things I don’t like about the UK at this time and I may not stay here much longer but I’ve lived in enough countries overseas to know that there’s ups and downs everywhere and every person has to make a rational choice.
I have freedom of speech, I can hit “submit” to this comment without fear for my liberty because of this country’s laws and people but I know where the boundaries are and how to respect them.
something’s very wrong with you
Just finished an 18 month stretch for carrying an iPhone 5 along the pavement, apparently its because if you turned too quickly you could take someones head clean off, these laws are hear for our protection people, take it from someone who knows !
People carrying iPhones should be locked up for their own and everyone else’s safety. Since they aren’t competent enough to use a decent phone OS should we allow them to operate machinery or drive?
urgh
See- they can’t even communicate intelligibly
Repeat after me :
“Using a different operating system on my phone than the one held to be most popular doesn’t make up for my failings as a human being”
I can’t repeat that, since the OS I use IS the most popular.
Still doesn’t make up for your failings as a human being though. Its a phone, you absolute weapon.
Nowt wrong with iOS keep it simple I say, there’s no excuse for over complicated unintuitive bad UI design, life’s too short.
How did you get an iPhone 5 18 months ago?!
It might have been a stretched iPhone 4, so basically an iPhone 5
The judge couldn’t tell the difference anyway
On an average summers day if they had to enforce “Being drunk in a pub” and “Carrying a plank along a pavement” the town where I work would be empty!!!
I wish they would – No sweat panted morons shouting or dogs/girlfirends barking… Bliss…
Being drunk in a pub (Licensing Act 1872)
–> Click on the link –>
Point 2)
“This Act shall not extend to Scotland.”
Brilliant. Got to love the Scottish, they have it sorted!
“Your comment is awaiting moderation”.
Well that’s because I’m not in bloody Scotland!!!!
The Scottish really don’t care,
I’ve been well alchohol shopping at 15, 16 there buying whiskey etc. The guy selling it didn’t bat an eyelid, nor did he even ask for ID. Compare that to now, when I’m actually of legal age to purchase the stuff, and I’m ID’d every time in England!
Ignore the ‘well’. It’s times like these where I wish it was illegal *not* to have an edit button on places like these..
They should take a look at the laws governing the Guilds and the Freemen of the City of London. There are some fantastic ones there.
Nothing insane about defacing money – it costs a lot to print money and no laughing matter if some twat scribbles all over a note and stops it being legal tender.
Same with being drunk in a pub, a bar tender is legally obliged to stop serving you alcohol if you seem intoxicated. If you can’t handle your booze drink at home.
There are legitiate reasons for defacing money being illegal – it’s there as a stopgap to prevent large-scale mucking around with money.
The good news is, it’s legal for a Pregnant woman to urinate in a Policeman’s helmet (sic)
Thats something i would like to see for many reasons!
Not quite. It’s not illegal for a pregnant woman to relieve herself where she likes if she’s desperate. That could, in theory, include a policeman’s helmet but could also include your mum’s doorstep or the back corner of a Burger King.
I work on the Underground and a customer pointed out this man on rollerblades. My supervisor went up to him and as he approached him he noticed the man had a snake around his neck.
As we have no rules about snakes we had to ask him to remove his rollerblades.
I can only assume this man was a total idiot!
Does he want to die?
How unsafe is it to rollerblade around in a tube station!
Not sure why you mentioned the snake, but rollerblades on the underground sounds like a quick way to die, glad you helped him by making him remove them.
I mentioned the snake as not everyone would like to be sitting next to one on a packed train?
The problem with some rollerbladers is that they think everyone should move for them, not the other way round. We had a spate of people using those kids scooters along the platforms. Nothing like those falling onto metal tracks!
Are there not general “pet” regulations for the Tube then?
A snake is no different to any other pet, some people like some hate.
There are plenty of people TERRIFIED of dogs, and yet they have to suffer every time some twat brings theirs onto a bus and sits it next to them.
Yet, suddenly because it’s a snake it’s NOT OK to scare people?
Why do people with certain phobia’s rank above others?
What about pet birds, rats, cats, frogs, lizards? How about Spiders?
Either animals are OK or they are not.
You can’t draw a random fuzzy line in the sand where your particular taste ends and say that is for everybody.
I personally think ALL animals (other than people) should be banned on the Bus and Tube, it’s no place for livestock! If people need to transport their animals they need to make arrangements.
Just please don’t discriminate only CERTAIN animals because that’s just wrong.
The only animal one I knew was non guide dogs have to go on the top floor of a bus. Still don’t know if that’s true.
I would say the norm is that most prefer a dog next to them then a snake!
Defacing money is no longer a crime. That’s why you can go to a tourist attraction and squash a penny into a souvenir. There’s even a notice on the side of the machine explaining that it’s no longer illegal.
defacing a coin is no longer illegal (Coinage Offences Act 1936, repealed by Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981), but defacing a bank note is (s12 Currency and Banknotes Act 1928)