Sometimes it’s easy to shake your head at the way things work in Spain, to sit back and think, ‘If I were Prime Minister for a day I’d set this place right!’ -especially so when you grew up in a nanny state like the UK.
There are two things I would work on straight away. Firstly, I would make sure all women got paid the same amount as their male counterparts for doing the same job. I have never really counted myself amongst the feminists of this world, but there are some things which are just plain good manners, simple good sense. And in Spain women are still getting lower wages in the work place.
Secondly:
I would pour money into road safety and the persecution of crazy, law-breaking motorists. Today’s bus crash on the A4 outside Madrid could have been a lot worse, only one death, two ‘muy grave’, and eleven more injuries. But the fact is that last year over 4,000 people were killed on the roads in Spain. The main causes for these deaths were drink driving, lack of seat belt, driving too close to the car in front, and speeding. Why does this happen? Lack of enforcement by the police. The reason there are far fewer deaths in the UK is that people drive more carefully, and tend not to drink and drive – why? Because they know that if they disobey the laws of the road they are likely to be caught, and that the penalties will be stiff. That just isn’t the case in Spain.
That is where I would start if I were in charge for a day. O.K. end of rant.
Notes from Spain by Ben Curtis 