Left forward! Or is that right?

Political orientation in Central Europe can be problematic. No one really knows any longer what normal right-wing or left-wing politicians are supposed to look like.

Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczyński is reputed a radical conservative, but he said recently that rich Poles who have acquired their wealth in the last 17 years are a threat to the country's freedom.

Hungary's left-wing Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány, whom the right-leaning opposition regards as a communist, is introducing health-care payments for patients and making budget cuts at a pace most normal right-wingers couldn't keep up with.

And in the Czech Republic? Industry and Trade Minister Martin Říman, a member of the right-leaning cabinet, proudly announced recently in connection with the reform package that his ministry would help out small businesses and abolish the planned law about electronic cash registers.

In Slovakia, on the other hand, a right-wing government introduced mandatory cash registers several years ago and told small business owners they better go out and buy them because right-wing politics emphasise an orderly system of taxation. So far not a single small company has gone out of business because it could not afford a cash register.

Waiters no longer laboriously tally up bills on little pieces of paper. And customers can get receipts from electronic…