Party Vibe

also just read there have been massive forest fires in FR, ES, HR and GR this weekend – the fire fighters are struggling to combat them too due to heatwave.

Three of these countries are suffering massive public finance problems (I don’t know about the state of Croatia’s economy) and stuff like big fires costs a lot of public money to put out. what is good though is the wider populace in at least FR and ES has not turned to the hard right politics and is willing to pay taxes still for public services (which includes of course the Fire Brigade) – in which case it does make sense to swallow your pride, accept that this time the “nanny state” has a point and wait for things to cool down. On the “related threads” here I see publicity for a large French rave held in October. if it is still reasonable weather but not blazing hot, perhaps this is a better idea?

FR’s military procedures are very similar to UK. Often military stuff is “mothballed” i.e not used but not totally decomissioned. (I think the current French term for this is mettre en sommeil) – mothballs (though common when we were young) are now often banned in EU as dangerous! Given what is going on in the Middle East and that FR is culturally and geographically much “closer to the action” and also stuff going on in Russia and other nations I am not surprised if the military are genuinely planning to reuse these bases for a variety of reasons.

where I live are many military bases and aerodromes but we can’t use them for raves as they are still half active and the MOD often rent them to Americans.

Also our politics are different, in France the central govt can requistion land and override local government more easily than in England which is how I understand you got the sarkovals in the first place.

We are both old enough to remember the 1980s and all that heavy political stuff is coming back again (and also the weather/environment factors which are new).

will they allow an autumn event somewhere? or maybe if people do smaller events in autumn as I remember that some are permitted even without massive licenses in some préfectures (not all?)

I have also a strong interest in military history (WW II to Cold War and also post 90s conflicts now like Yugoslavia) across Europe and even what the people (outside ravers or minority groups) especially in the rural areas think in France is very much like the UK. Basically they are still all fighting WW II and the Cold War in their minds and would rather have “strong military”. Even some ravers I have known get bored of partying and join the Army or Air Force here when there aren’t many other jobs.

In England we are allowed the 500 persons event but have to do a full licensing document. But the cost is only about €30 rather than €800.

also saw this in todays news – if FR wants to get involved in this war (it may even be for the right reasons) they will need to provide materiel like aircraft, soldiers and these need bases at home and abroad..

Syria crisis: France backs no-fly zone – live updates | World news | guardian.co.uk

FR has always had cultural links with the Arab world and the Southern bit is geographically closer.

So a lot of the Syrian people especially those on the losing side of whatever war is there might well decide to get into France. I have a nasty feeling this may explain why the police minister is being hardline about a lot of things. Socialists or not, folk get paranoid about immigration (same in UK, when we had a more left wing govt the people forced them to the right., even to start this stupid oil war with the middle East :hopeless: )

Hollande like any prominent female leader can be undermined because of machismo and misogyny in government. Even Thatcho got undermined and she was powerful in her days. I am not a conservative, I am a socialist/green and did not like Thatcho but there is a mistaken feeling that female leaders (and/or ethnic minorities) get a easy time in socialist governments as well – this isn’t the case. it is better in green parties but they still have a hard fight.

With regard to taxes, there is also the VAT / TVA. in about 2010 I was buying some IP phones for work. This is in a rural place where many folk have never seen one (some only just got used to phones not having dials :laugh_at:) For some reasons I don’t know I could not find a decent picture of one from an English site so I got the pic from a French site. Out of curiosity I looked at the price and French buyers would be paying €30 extra per phone compared to UK (even taking into account exchange rates, conversion etc). The phone itself is made for a USA company in China so its base price would be the same, and profit margins for ICT suppliers are similar across the EU. So the extra is all tax…