Support Property Rights, Hide a Non-Asylum Seeker Behind An Illegal Hedge

Kerry Howley | July 21, 2008

British officials looking to bust into a home or business have over 1,000 legal justifications to choose from, reports the Daily Mail. Here are a handy few:

• Invade your home to see if your pot plants have pests or do not have a 'plant passport' (Plant Health England Order 2005).

• Survey your home and garden to see if your hedge is too high (Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003).

• Check that accommodation given to asylum seekers is not being lived in by non-asylum seekers (Immigration and Asylum Act 1999).

• Raid a house to check if unlicensed gambling is taking place (Gambling Act 2005 Inspection Regulations 2007).

• Seize fridges without the correct energy rating (Energy Information Household Refrigerators and Freezers Regulations 2004).

Whole breathless article here.

Via Bitchgirls.

Comments

|7.21.08 @ 4:07PM|#

Dare one suspect that the phrase 'pot plants' means something slightly different in Britain, or at least British legislation, than it does in the US?

no hugs for thugs,
Shirley Knott

Naga Sadow|7.21.08 @ 4:11PM|#

England is officially scratched off the list of places I would like to visit.

|7.21.08 @ 4:12PM|#

Shirley Knott

I think you're right.

They need a warrant to break in to get at your pot plants but they don't need one to break in to see if they have pests or something like that.

I'm fairly sure that even in their newly permissive drug regime it is still illegal to actually grow cannabis in your home. So I wonder what those plants are called.

Damn they sure talk funny, don't they?

|7.21.08 @ 4:23PM|#

Not to mention checking looking for untaxed television reception.

willie|7.21.08 @ 4:33PM|#

'pot plants' ==> potted plants

|7.21.08 @ 4:43PM|#

Seize fridges without the correct energy rating

Come to the UK. We're just like a Monty Python Sketch.™

Episiarch|7.21.08 @ 4:46PM|#

I seems that the Ministry of Silly Laws must be operating in secret.

|7.21.08 @ 4:47PM|#

Like which sketch? "The Bishop?"

The Bishop|7.21.08 @ 4:50PM|#

OK, Devious, don't move!

|7.21.08 @ 4:52PM|#

Bring in the comfy chair!

Kurt Vilb|7.21.08 @ 4:54PM|#

WHAT??? I gotta fight the lion! It's what this guy Scott's all about!

|7.21.08 @ 4:55PM|#

But what if your hedge is ninjas?

|7.21.08 @ 4:58PM|#

There's A Penguin on the Telly

|7.21.08 @ 4:59PM|#

And if there ever was a 21st century case for the Forth amendment, this is it. As eviscerated as it is, it still shines like a bright beacon of liberty compared to this crap.

|7.21.08 @ 5:00PM|#

'pot plants' ==> potted plants

Yes, willie, I think everyone got that.

But what do you call pot plants?

Fucking limeys. Why can't they speak fucking English?

Gerry Schlick|7.21.08 @ 5:14PM|#

Jim, I feel here that Scott may be too tall in the area of height with reference to Vanilla who is too near the ground in the area of being too short at this time.

Another Plant|7.21.08 @ 5:20PM|#

So clearly, there is cause for alarm; contrary to previous theories, a bustle in the hedgerow can now be the result of more than merely some spring cleaning by Liv Tyler.

Is there still time to change the road you're on?

Police Constable |7.21.08 @ 6:08PM|#

Blimey, whatever did I give the wife?

JB|7.21.08 @ 6:29PM|#

They may take our lives, but they can never take...OUR FRIDGE!

Any copper who dies serving a no-knock warrant looking for an evil fridge really deserves it.

Sam Grove|7.21.08 @ 11:29PM|#

My question is: Just how far down the tubes is Britain?

|7.22.08 @ 9:15AM|#

Any copper who dies serving a no-knock warrant looking for an evil fridge really deserves it.

Fixed that for you.

Robert|7.23.08 @ 12:51AM|#

What's with those bins? Bins of what?