How can France ban outdoor smoking?

Faced with a cost-of-living crisis, rising delinquency, failing public services, and riots in the suburbs, the French government has finally sprung into action  –  it’s banning smoking outdoors. Not entirely, of course, just in places where children might be. The new rules, coming into force in July, prohibit lighting up in any space ‘frequented by children’, which is as vague and self-important as it sounds. We’re told this includes parks, beaches, bus stops and pavements near schools. Where else? No one knows. What is clear is that the state is now more concerned with puffing parents, than with knife crime or collapsing hospitals.

The announcement came courtesy of the minister for labour, health, solidarity, and families, Catherine Vautrin, who described it, without irony, as a ‘new dynamic’ in France’s anti-smoking campaign. It’s hard to imagine a better illustration of political displacement.