The news from France is very bad. Over the summer, President Sarkozy and the French Government have deported about 1,000 Roma people to Romania and Bulgaria. The mass expulsion of a community (based on ethnicity), the likes of which we have not seen in Europe since the Second World War, was duly met with widespread [...]
Everyone’s favourite mad-cap Mayor (of the people who read this blog) Christian Estrosi has made a final coup against freedom and democracy: he has banned the recording of council meetings, after censoring street performers it was the next logical step to censor his councillors. The Mayor of Nice decided without warning that the recordings would [...]
Christian Estrosi, Mayor of Nice (UMP), has imposed a curfew on children aged 13 and under. The curfew forbids children from going out on the streets without an adult after 11pm on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. In principle, there is no reason for a minor to be out on the streets alone at night. However, [...]
It is a cruel coincidence that on the same day I have to spend 45 euros on “fiscal stamps” for official documents and suchlike (hence lack of blogging), Mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi gets into trouble for not knowing the price of a normal stamp. Rather, he gets in trouble for not knowing when to [...]
Yesterday I spent Remembrance Day (Veterans’ Day to some) outside of Britain for the first time. My grandfather took part in WWII as a sergeant and though he is still alive, I always try to attend something to attest to that fact. I think it’s important to note that the day is a public holiday [...]
There is a stigma that it is always the Left who will increase your taxes, as if the Right are completely incapable of doing it. In fact, right-wing UMP Mayor Christian Estrosi has made Nice the champion of all of France… for local tax increases! See the map for runners up: The tax rises he [...]
Nice introduced its rent-a-bike system in July. Now, with over 150 Vélos stolen and/or broken, the company has been forced to suspend the service while it adjusts the security system. This is unprecedented, despite other grandes villes like Paris and Marseilles already having a stable Vélo system in place. What it really shows is the [...]
Since I wrote my last article (here) explaining the situation surrounding the elections of the Conseil Régional PACA (Provence-Alpes-Cote D’Azur) we have had an important development! Hubert Falco, who was widely tipped as the man to wrangle PACA from the Socialists, has officially refused orders to lead the UMP list. The papers (including myself) were [...]
PACA is one of the 23 regions of France, it stands for Provence-Alpes-Cote D’Azur. The capital is Marseilles, which holds the regional assembly where most of the elected Regional Councillors work. I visited there once when they had some sort of big session going on ; it’s rather like any other hemicycle based parliament, and [...]
Christian Estrosi, Mayor of Nice, has decided to severely restrict and censor the activities of the city’s street performers. The danger is thus that this kind of censorship spreads and results in the eradication of all forms of expression and spontaneity in the town, which has already been suffering a lack of energy this summer. The City [...]
