Revealing Labour and the Con-Dem attitudes to freedom

This is a very revealing section from a BBC news report on the smoking ban - revealing, that is, of some of the attitudes of the main political parties in this country:

The government has dropped a planned review of the smoking ban in England.

The previous Labour administration had promised it would be looked at again in autumn 2010, but the coalition says it has "no plans" to do so.

Publicans - who feared a review would extend the ban into beer gardens and doorways, damaging trade - backed a campaign to partially lift the ban.

First up, you might have thought that a review of the smoking ban might lead to the smoking ban being repealed, if only in part. If so, more fool you! No, for the Nu Labour government, a review is an opportunity to extend an illiberal, invasive and stupid policy. But that's Nu Labour for you - determined to interfere in your life as much as they possibly can, and then a little bit more.

Secondly, it is very interesting that the Con-Dems are not going to go through with the review. On the one hand, this is a good thing - no review, no extension of the smoking ban. On the flipside, no review, no repeal of the smoking ban. The Con-Dems increasing seem to be labouring under the delusion that if they don't extend the limits of state control in this country then they are being inherently liberal. That is, of course, absolute nonsense. If anything, it makes them conservative. If they truly want to be liberal, they need to roll back the impact of the state on its citizens that so dramatically increased under the last draconian government.

As things stand, it almost feels as if we are meant to be grateful when the state chooses not to further extend its often malign control further into our lives. I'd be far more grateful to the government, though, if it decided to roll back the frontiers of the state. But, as always, I'm not holding my breath.