I'm French but living in the UK for the past 12 years. British people have no problem saying "no" in my experience, and I don't think there is a large differen

I'm French but living in the UK for the past 12 years. British people have no problem saying "no" in my experience, and I don't think there is a large difference between France and the UK. In both countries, it is mostly class, politeness and social norms that influence the willingness to say "no". The illustrative argument about the citizenship application rings true to me. But my interpretation is that you are just faced with the legendary disorganization of the French administration. It is at times Kafkaesque. Years ago my Mom was faced with some weird catch-22 issue at the local benefits office. She had been on long term disability allowance due to Cancer (she's fine now) until one odd day they requested her to re-submit all her pay-slips from 5 years prior (i.e. before she got sick). As she was doing lots of part time jobs with different schedule back then, it was actually a difficult task, and she ended up missing something like 2 or 3 pay-slips among the 20 pay-slips she submitted. She went to multiple appointments every-time seeing the same clerk with no compassion. No other documents would do. Her employers did not have copies. On the last encounter the clerk said he would have to stop her allowance. She snapped and made an epic scene. After 10 minutes she was allowed to meet the manager. He apologized, clicked on a button on the computer, and that was that. She never had to resubmit any documents and has since retired.