London - Queen Elizabeth's speech in the British parliament on Tuesday may have been routine but at least nobody got bored to death. That would have been against the law.
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, 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 being allowed to murder bow-and-arrow-carrying Scotsmen within the city walls of York in northern England.
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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The laws and other regulations were culled from published research into ancient legislation that has never been repealed although subsequent statutes have rendered them obsolete.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).
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