Britain's Labour party gave itself a makeover in the 1990s, shedding the old socialist rhetoric to present itself to the electorate as a modern social-democratic party, tolerant of private enterprise and able to join compassion to efficiency in the management of public services.

Britain's Labour party gave itself a makeover in the 1990s, shedding the old socialist rhetoric to present itself to the electorate as a modern social-democratic party, tolerant of private enterprise and able to join compassion to efficiency in the management of public services. The old leftist impulse to regulate every aspect of people's lives did not go away, though. It manifested itself the other week in a complete ban on smoking in all enclosed places. Even private clubs are included in the ban, for the sake of their employees' health. There are, however, some interesting exemptions: Britons may continue to smoke in private homes, nursing homes, hospitals (sic), prisons, and hotel bedrooms. As always with lunacies of this kind, paradoxes abound. If Mr. Smith employs workers to fix up his house, or makes use of domestic servants, why is he permitted to inflict his smoke on them? And: If, after having been caught smoking in a prohibited place, he is prosecuted, convicted, and fined, but refuses to pay the fine, he will be sent to prison--where he may smoke? It is futile to bring reason to bear on programs of this sort. The driving impulse here is for domination and control, and for the relentless stamping out of all those liberties the English once cherished.