DURING THE 1945 general election Winston Churchill provoked outrage by predicting that a Labour victory would necessitate “some sort of Gestapo, no doubt very humanely directed in the first instance”. He feared socialism could not function “without a political police” and gave warning that it would set out to mould people’s conduct as well as their standard of living. Sixty one years later a depiction of him by the actor Mel Smith on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe has elicited a response that suggests Sir Winston was not wrong but prescient.

Mr Smith is performing in Allegiance, a play by Mary Kenny, In the interests of authenticity, his performance should include him smoking a cigar on stage. To the sentient this detail is unsurprising; Churchill is Britain’s most famous cigar smoker. His favourite brands were Romeo y Julieta and La Aroma de Cuba.

But in its determination to create Devolvograd, Cuba, with midges and drizzle, the socialist-dominated Scottish Executive insists that under the terms of its draconian smoking ban it is illegal for an actor to light up on stage.

Smoking police known as compliance officers are empowered to visit any public building to enforce obedience. Transgressors may be fined £50 and the premises on which they smoke £200. Edinburgh’s Labour council has promised to make spot checks on Fringe productions. Smith has been compelled to comply. The reputation for artistic freedom that is worth so much to Edinburgh has been damaged.

Scotland is becoming grimly accustomed to this. Before the smoking ban came land reform legislation that permits expropriation of private property. Devolved ministers spend lavishly on sanctimonious public information campaigns and employ a growing army of interfering officials. Next, they appear keen to restrict the number of drinks an individual may buy on licensed premises.

England beware. The state apparatus that is strangling individual liberty in Scotland is built according to the pre-modern prejudices of the country’s Labour elite. These are Gordon Brown’s comrades; he will rely upon their votes and machinations to secure the premiership. Then Scottish Labour cronyism will apply. Rewards will be demanded in the form of jobs in government. The frontiers of Devolvograd will be extended southward.