Curious British Laws

[shyvas]

Strange British Laws

 

[Amy SF]

An employer cannot give a (subjective) bad reference as this may constitute libel. They can choose not to give one at all or be non committal, but they can't give a bad one.

This is largely true but more complicated than the legal shorthand that often gets quoted. An employer can provide whatever reference they like but should not say anything that is negative that they would not be prepared to defend in court-of-law as the recipient of the reference has the right to sue for defamation of character or plain libel. As the libel laws of Britain are quite strict, employers often opt for the simple don't say anything bad approach.

Well, that's a good thing, though, right?

Under the terms of the Polish Potatoes (Notification) in England Order - 2004: No person shall, in the course of business, import into England potatoes which he knows to be or has reasonable cause to suspect to be Polish potatoes.

So what do they have against Polish potatoes?

Pretty amusing stuff.

Incidentally, there are a lot of strange and obsolete laws here in the US as well, many of which date from when the country was more agrarian (such as not allowing pigs and chickens in the town square on Sundays or other such silliness), and some of which date from an era of stricter social mores (i.e. blue laws such as not allowing the sale and consumption of alcohol on Sundays). Such laws in both countries are still on the books because they've never been challenged, and are largely ignored.

 

[Calliegirl]

Ding, dong, ditch is illegal. But, that's a childhood rite of passage.