Does the database differentiate between René Artois and his identical twin brother?

Usual suspects behind government systems strike again.

...far too many levels of management that are strictly and narrowly concerned only with their particular task and have exactly zero interest in the big picture.

I swear this place could be on fire, but unless it directly affected their department, it wouldn't be noticed (and any evacuation would be a massive inconvenience.

This is how the country is set up generally. Try living where three départements (counties) and three regions meet and getting sense out of any of them. There's a fairly new road near here, with about ten metres of deplorable tarmac. Why? Because it crosses a regional boundary and the records in each region say something different about where the exact boundary is, and it seems this is a matter of deep-rooted principle so they'd rather do nothing and blame the other side instead of one or t'other saying "just toss some tar and gravel onto it, we can argue later". Icon for obvious reason.

I recommend outsourcing the whole apparatus of government to the large famously efficient country to your east

Deutsche Bahn would like a word...

Late train icon -->

"I recommend outsourcing the whole apparatus of government to the large famously efficient country to your east"

Where they're having exactly the same mostly fruitless debates about bureaucracy, public administration costs, public sector pensions and pay, and public sector effectiveness that are being had in every other large European economy.

https://quillette.com/2026/04/12/germanys-cozy-catastrophe-economics-reform/

https://xpert.digital/en/835-million-euros-per-day/

And some dated but interesting comparisons here:

https://www.europeandatajournalism.eu/cp_data_news/public-employees-comparisons-between-european-countries-are-deceptive/

>>large famously efficient country

Germany is renowned for efficiency, however that must be owing to a mis-translation somewhere.

What the German authorities/Law-makers are very good at is documentation. The two (Efficiancy and Documentation) are it seems, sadly, mutually exclusive when it comes to anything in Germany.

Sauce - the Brother-In-Law recounted the frankly kafka-esque process of getting new license plates for his cars each year.

> Germany is renowned for efficiency, however that must be owing to a mis-translation somewhere.

I believe it started as a joke about the Prussian army's bureaucracy, which the Germans, famously lacking a sense of humour and having an inflated sense of self-importance, took as a compliment.

> the large famously efficient country to your east

China is a bit far, plus there is the language issue.

Sounds a bit chançais to me...

Ah, my mistake. I thought we were talking about Russia!

I lived there for a decade and the level of bureaucratic incompetence was staggering. Many "official" jobs are created just so people can claim to be working, they serve no real purpose or benefit to anyone. The jobs revolve around employees completing forms to pass onto other departments to generate more forms which are passed on to other departments to generate more forms etc... at each step the data becomes more and more distorted with information lost and fictional data added. The French have a word to describe such people. "scribes", the nearest English translation, which really doesn't do it justice, is "pen pushers".

So true communism was achieved in France, but with fashion and wine and croissants?

If only Marx had lived in Nice instead of Manchester

Not far off the truth. If a process required going from A to B, French officials don't take the one efficient step they go A, Z, Y, X... B. It gives more people employment and takes twenty five times longer.

On the other hand, the contrast with the French private sector is staggering.

Someone disagree? Having worked in France (and dozens of other countries), I've found the French to be the most efficient and disciplined with some difference, without being overly rigid and bureaucratic.

Of course the grass is always greener on the other side, but I think I have a fair bit of perspective.

If only Marx had lived in Nice instead of Manchester

He lived in Paris for a couple of years, but IIRC he was deported for writing about his political views.

Isn't that the essence of being Parisian?

Rather tempting fate, like calling a ship the HMS Unsinkable

> like calling a ship the HMS Unsinkable

Vy vouldn't you sink of eet?

The ANTS ( rebranded in 2024 as "France Titres") ..although I prefer the typo in the article of "France titers", runs on win on both the front and back end. they accept uploads in various forms, bmp, jpeg, png...and pdf ..

Yes it accepts uploads in pdf, to a win system.

I ( I'm in Brittany ) spoke with them last week by phone . The helpful lady there said a few things which turned out to be inaccurate ) and also suggested uploading my documents as .pdfs..She advised me to use "I love pdf" ( she suggested I google it ) as "here at the ANTS it is what we all use".

Bless.

It was only a matter of time before someone hacked ( if pushing a partly open door can be called hacking ) the ANTS. The problem for everyone here, french and non french residents such as myself ( Irish ) is that the ANTS is the hub of the digital ID wheel , via "France connect" in France. Once inside the back end, you have the keys to the kingdom, and to the iron knickers of the queen , all the princesses, the king and all the princes, every digital ID door that there is, and all the vehicles. Someone made a copy of my car reg plate last year, it took a visit to the gendarmes and complex ( paper ) dossier to the ANTAI ( the gov't section that deals with vehicle and motoring related offences and fines ) and an online ( because the ANTS is online only ) to the ANTS to get a new reg number issued by the ANTS. I had phoned them on the 6th of April with a question about document formats and max upload limits ( which is when the nice lady told me about "I love pdf" and submitted my request for an exchange of my pink UK licence on the 8th. The hacker was no doubt already inside.

Here in France there is very little mention of it so far , I sent a note to Connor at El Reg overnight, partly in the hope that if "foreign media" mentioned it then the french authorities, would get a shift on about notifying those who may be affected before they get phished. The french IT sites have spoken of it, also some news sites and a quick bit on TV. But the real gravity of the official ID service which authenticates everything from passports, licences to vehicle registrations being hacked is as yet not being treated nearly seriously enough here in France. Nor is getting vital services off windows.

ps..Hi Rick..Bonjour du 22 , right on the coast ..thought you'd be commenting on this one , totally agree with your post. ;-) I had a different "nick" here in the past but in trying to post this it told me that the email addy had been "bouncing too many emails".. Now in the middle of changing hoster, and data center.

Yes all these national sites running digital ID systems, age verification and the like which we can trust implicitly are all secure until they aren't.

Yeah, you can add the [1]Cegedim hack (medical data), [2]France Travail , [3]La Poste , and the [4]French interior ministry (among others) to TFA's ÉduConnect , the ' national bank account registry ', and this here ' National Agency for "Secure" Documents ' (ANTS), along with the record rate of [5]crypto-kidnaps in the country ... it's not a pretty picture, possibly due in part to a somewhat hasty push for dematerialization (from tangible docs to digitized & online -- to save costs!). Blend the push for Intelligence Artificielle haute couture everywhere into this and a right catwalk disaster should promptly emerge ...

At least they did [6]catch HexDex (today), whose pleather overalls activities seem to be behind some of those intrusive fashion crimes ...

[1] https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/03/french_medical_leak/

[2] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/14/mega_data_breach_at_french/

[3] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/23/la_poste_france_offline/

[4] https://www.euronews.com/2025/12/17/french-interior-ministry-targeted-in-massive-cyberattack-minister-confirms

[5] https://www.theregister.com/2026/04/15/crypto_kidnap_france/

[6] https://www.franceinfo.fr/internet/securite-sur-internet/cyberattaques/fuites-de-donnees-un-homme-de-22-ans-surnomme-hexdex-interpelle-apres-de-nombreuses-cyberattaques-contre-des-federations-sportives-syndicats-et-administrations_7810046.html