IT'S NICE OF NANNY BLAIR TO LET US HAVE A FLUTTER

CHILDREN may only have chips three times a week, models mustn't be too
thin, museums need ethnic quotas, teenagers should complete 150
minutes of homework a night and, if you don't do what you're told, one
of the 25 new tsars will eat you up.

According to a pamphlet published by the Centre for Policy Studies
this week, Statism by Stealth by Martin McElwee and Andrew Tyrie, a
Tory MP, Labour has brought back the nanny state. It meddles, prods
and pries into every corner of our lives. Tessa Jowell has always been
the leading Mary Poppins, brightly telling us not to become
hairdressers, counting the number of fat women on television and
handing out medicine as minister for health, women and now culture.

Which is why it was extraordinary this week to see the Culture
Secretary leaning provocatively over a roulette table, more Sharon
Stone in Casino than starched apron. The message from Labour was
clear. Don't smoke, don't eat fried food, don't hunt, don't farm, only
use dope in Brixton, but gamble all you want. It's the new culture.
Opera is too elitist, slot machines are for the masses. Even the
prudent, Presbyterian Chancellor, Gordon Brown, is encouraging it.

At the moment, casinos can only accept members who have registered at
least 24 hours in advance, betting shops are hidden away in shame and
you can't even have a Babycham while playing poker - alcohol and
gambling don't mix.

But, according to the White Paper A Safe Bet for Success, published
this week, the British may soon be able to drink while betting, use
credit cards to gamble at walk-in casinos and play roulette on the
high street. Bingo prizes and fruit machines could pay out UKP1 million.
There could be gambling "sheds" in the major cities and small betting
shops next to every coffee bar