Having little else to occupy their time, bureaucrats the world over devote their lives to deciding how the rest of us should live. Regulations abound, principally to ensure that we are protected from burning ourselves on hot pie fillings, tripping over curbs, drinking fruit scented shampoo or otherwise curtailing our existence before our allotted hour. It’s refreshing then to find suitably arcane laws which have escaped the notice of the powers that be. Par example, that you can still claim trial by mortal combat in Blighty – which could make arguing about that parking fine all the more satisfying. But still a bloody sight less dangerous than le version Francaise – viz. pulling out from a minor road onto a major one without bothering to check what’s coming.
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