Spotting a grey squirrel in your back garden might seem like a stroke of luck to any nature lover – but if it happens to you, you may be a step away from breaking the law. Failing to report grey squirrels in your garden, it turns out, is illegal. So is being drunk in charge of a cow. Neither of these laws, one has to assume, tend to be strictly enforced these days – although there may be a farmer out there who is fond of his ale who wishes to contradict this. 

They are, though, among a raft of laws – many of them historic ones – that remain on the statute books after centuries, which seem ridiculous to modern eyes.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has launched a drive to banish outdated laws, inviting people across the UK to nominate needless laws and excessive regulations which should be ditched. A word of warning, though. If you do decide to nominate your favourite ridiculous rule, then you should perhaps go online, or at least be very careful when you prepare to post the letter. Placing a postage stamp bearing the monarch's head upside down on an envelope is still technically an act of treason. 

To read more please see the Edinburgh Evening News website at http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/politics/From-urinating-in-a-policeman39s.6397523.jp?utm_source=LawPoints&utm_campaign=913cba0a81-LawPoints_Issue_33&utm_medium=email - it's worth it!