On Mon, 04 Jul 2005 14:23:33 +0000, Nick Maclaren wrote:


In article ,
David WE Roberts writes:
| Picked this up from a mushroom thread further down.
|
| "A notice on another newsgroup said that the government is proposing to
| bring in a bill to punish anyone who has mushrooms naturally growing on
| their lawn, the same poster has now said that they seem to be backing off
| that one...what a relief as we have Liberty Caps and amanita muscaria our
| there!"
|
| I presume this is a Troll - given the high percentage of new (and old)
| houses built on grassland/farmland which would have naturally occurring
| mushrooms.

I wish :-(

I believe that the above is a troll, but the government was seriously
considering a proposal to clarify the currently incredibly obscure
legislation on the matter. It got quite a long way before someone
got through to them that the new approach was completely demented.
In particular, I heard that it was proposed that it be a crime to
grow such things deliberately - which, given the biology of such
fungi, would lead to a law so bizarre that A.P. Herbert would have
been unable to satirise it.

My client wishes to plead guilty, M'Lud, to possession of a mushroom bag
with criminal intent.

It could spawn (ouch!) a whole new industry of legal ambulance chasers.

Anyone lucky enough to own an acre of mixed woodland would be bang to
rights.

Come to think of it, Buck House has quite large gardens.....