Amsterdam alcoholics paid in beer for collecting litter

Alcoholics are being paid in beer to clean the streets of Amsterdam as part of a project partly funded by the Dutch government - the organisers think other countries should abandon "old-fashioned political correctness" and adopt the same approach.

You’ve got to love the Dutch attitude, even if this idea does sound a bit crazy, and it sounds crazy well because it is.

So what the organisers of this project are saying is instead of trying to help alcoholics overcome their addictions, we’re going to pay them in beer to pick up litter, I’m guessing a lot of which is their own beer cans.

What will they do next, pay everyone in Amsterdam who is overweight in burgers and fries instead of money, or will the people of Amsterdam with drug addictions be paid for wandering round the city picking up shiny things?

I’m not exactly sure what the point of this initiative is, but I hope we in the U.K. are not one of the other countries who takes it up.