It's the law

BBC NEWS | UK | UK chooses 'most ludicrous laws' reported The UK's top 10 most ridiculous British laws were listed as:

• It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament

  Is it a capital offense, or do they just put the corpse in jail?

• It is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British king or queen's image upside-down
• It is illegal for a woman to be topless in Liverpool except as a clerk in a tropical fish store

  Why would a female clerk in a tropical fish store need to be toppless?

• Eating mince pies on Christmas Day is banned
• If someone knocks on your door in Scotland and requires the use of your toilet, you are required to let them enter
• In the UK a pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants, including in a policeman's helmet

  Why not just send her to Scotland?

• The head of any dead whale found on the British coast automatically becomes the property of the King, and the tail of the Queen

  What if they don't want it?

• It is illegal not to tell the tax man anything you do not want him to know, but legal not to tell him information you do not mind him knowing
• It is illegal to enter the Houses of Parliament wearing a suit of armour
• It is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls of York, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow

Other bizarre foreign laws voted by those polled included:

• In Ohio, it is illegal to get a fish drunk
• In Indonesia, the penalty for masturbation is decapitation

  And they just told me it would make me lose my eyesight.

• A male doctor in Bahrain can only examine the genitals of a woman in the reflection of a mirror
• In Switzerland, a man may not relieve himself standing up after 10pm

  He may be too drunk to stand, anyway.

• It is illegal to be blindfolded while driving a vehicle in Alabama
• In Florida, unmarried women who parachute on a Sunday could be jailed
• Women in Vermont must obtain written permission from their husbands to wear false teeth
• In Milan, it is a legal requirement to smile at all times, except during funerals or hospital visits
• In France, it is illegal to name a pig Napoleon