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I suppose it's a bit too tin-foil hattish to suggest that this might have been timed to coincide with the official visit of Syria's President to Britain by the police to recruit paid informants sounds like exactly the kind of thing said President might recognise from his own Ba'athist tradition.

"A £500 reward is being offered to people who tell the authorities about persistent drink-drivers over Christmas."

Question: How will either the informant or the police know if the alleged 'drink-driver' is 'persistent'? I suppose the informant could swear blind to the fact, provided they needed the money enough.

Of course, the Syrian regime has nothing to do with it at all, though it does have all the ring of 'police-state' snitch culture so sadly prevalent in that part of the world. No, the reality is that this is yet another back-door admission by the state that it has now passed more laws and regulations than it can possibly enforce and so has little choice but to co-opt the polity into acting as its eyes and ears.

What next, I ask myself? 'Kids, report your parents for not paying their taxes'?