U.K. adopts Stasi tactics

Against smokers:

New powers effectively criminalising smoking in public were announced by the Government yesterday, with the minister in charge promising an "intelligence-led approach to enforcing the law".

Informers will be encouraged to report breaches of sweeping bans on the habit, in which company smoking rooms will be outlawed and places such as bus shelters and the outsides of office blocks made no-smoking areas.

...

It is thought that establishments which attract repeated complaints could be subject to "sting" operations by council enforcers.

Caroline Flint, the public health minister, confirmed that the policy would be vigorously enforced with the assistance of informers from the public.

"I don't think we are talking about brigades of people out on the streets," she said. "What we are talking about is an intelligence-led approach to enforcing the law."