The two-party predominance ending

It is clear that we have had a two-party predominance system since almost the beginning of Spanish democracy. Every 4 years, when the polls take place, PP (right wing) and PSOE (left wing) fight among themselves in order to get the majority. Personally, I think it only makes undermine the population and the democracy.

In our two-party system, the parties don’t make a difference when they come to power. While they are in electoral campaign they claim to be concerned about society different problems and promise to uphold the causes if they win. Even so, at the end parties do nothing to work out them and Spain is declining every year; we are in recession, the public spending is constantly decreasing, the unemployment rate is soaring, there are cutbacks in education and the tuition fees are increasing continually. Furthermore, people lose faith on politics when they are struggling to meet ends met while politicians become more corrupt than ever.

By other hand, when the government launches a new initiative and all the politicians have to vote against or for it, any of the members of a party are able to vote in a different way of the party. If they do, they are punished with a fee and a political penalty. In other words, there is not a real democracy and population loses faith too on that. They decide to vote isn’t worth. Hardly anyone bother to vote in comparison with the first democracy ages.

Nevertheless, something has changed in last elections and there are new parties which do come across to be aware of the current society problems. I am fairly expectant to see how they can do make the difference in our country or, at least, how the two old parties are going to reach an agreement with the new ones.

This is Mary writing!

Chris missed out the comments on the final sentence of your last paragraph.   It would read better as:- "I look forward to seeing whether they do make a real difference in our country or, at least, how the two old parties are going to reach an agreement with the new ones."

The Two-party predominance ending

It is clear that predominantly,  we have had a two-party predominance system since almost the beginning of Spanish democracy. Every 4 years, when the polls take place, PP (right wing) and PSOE (left wing) fight among themselves one another in order to get/gain the majority. Personally, I think it only makes undermines democracy and serves the population poorly.

In our two-party system, the parties don’t make a difference when they come to power. While they are in During the electoral campaign they claim to be concerned about society's different various problems and promise to uphold the causes if they win. Even so, at in the end, parties do nothing to work out them solve these problems and Spain is declining every year; we are in recession, the public spending is constantly decreasing, the unemployment rate is soaring, there are cutbacks in education and the tuition fees are increasing continually. Furthermore/inevitably, people lose faith on in politics when they are struggling to meet make ends meet while politicians become more corrupt than ever.

By On the other hand, when the government launches a new initiative and all the politicians have to vote against or for it, any of the members of a party are in theory able to vote in a different way of to the party line. If they do, they are punished with a fee financial and a political penalty. In other words, there is not a real democracy and the population's loses faith in politics is further undermined too on that. They decide that it isn't worthwhile to vote isn’t worth. Hardly anyone bothers to vote in comparison with the first early days of democracy ages.

Nevertheless, something has changed in the last elections and now there are new parties which do come across appear to be aware of the current problems society faces. I am fairly expectant to seeing how if they can do make the a difference in our country or, at least, how the two old parties are going to reach an agreement with the new ones.

A wedding vs being sent to jail

It was Friday. 8th July 2011  The day after everything would be over after all. and the next day it would be all over. I couldn’t believe it, it had been the most stressful month ever.

The last week was had been especially hard. I remember that I was really / completely overwhelmed; going back and forth, without sleeping, solving every kind of problem that could happen those days. you could imagine. I was definitely worn out.

I was driving to the country house where it was supposed we were going to /  all  planned that we should spend the weekend. I  felt/ was feeling pretty nervous, excited indeed. I only wished and wishing that everything would run smoothly. I had just left the motorway in order to take the regular road towards Vejer. Suddenly, in at a crossroads, a policeman indicated that I had to stop.

He submitted me to a breathalyzer test in which I got 0’0. However, he decided not to let me go. In fact, he asked for my driving licence. I felt embarrassed because I had blocked my glove box was crammed with so much stuff so that I couldn’t reach the document. Finally, I got them/ retrieved it and the policeman could checked everything was fine. Even so, he began to look around the car and check saw that in the rear of the car, the rows of seats seat backs were folded down and it there was plenty of weird / unusual stuff. He asked me – ‘What is it for?’. I just told him about the wedding.

Immediately his face changed and he said ‘If you want, you can / could be held in custody for several days, so you could / and avoid to get getting married’.



PS Curiously, in Spanish "esposados" means both; handcuffed and married. ;-) I like this !

Well done Mer. The meaning was very clear, I have altered it principally to make it more colloquial.

I see that even the BBC can help!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/cool/

Youtube often comes up with answers; like this, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD9M2n-PMVE

Also there is a site that collects slang from all Spanish speaking countries here  http://www.jergasdehablahispana.org/?pais=Espa%F1a&palabra=marr%F3n&tipobusqueda=1

Notes in Spanish.com is a great site and offers a number of publications, mostly transcripts of their audio podcasts. They did one on slang (in Spain).

Chris