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 [...]

I had quite a bizarre, rude and aggressive encounter with a bouncer this evening. I was going into a bar with two friends of mine (both of them French) who are a bit older than myself. In the event that they read this and understand it, I’m going to say they are about 34. As [...]

Here are theresults for the First Round of the Regional Elections; Parti Socialiste: 29.5% UMP: 27% Europe Ecologie: 12.5% Front National: 11.7% Front de Gauche: 6.2% Modem: 4% Extreme Gauche: 3.7% Participation: VERY LOW around 46.5% Conclusions: This is the worst score the UMP has ever had. Sarkozy was nowhere to be seen the entire [...]

Eight months ago, I arrived in Nice, now it’s time for me to leave. It’s been an excellent stay, and I never wanted to leave for a minute. There will be a longer, more reflective post after I get back in the UK. For now though, I’ll show you this video which was a campaign [...]

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, [...]

I have been working for our French colleagues in the Parti Socialiste for 6 months now, and though I don’t know what a Jedward is, I have been able to experience ‘continental democracy’. The debate about electoral reform in Britain has always been “PR or not to PR”, with the third way of AV or [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]