THIS week Post Office Ltd has confirmed the closure of four post offices in Moray and the downgrading of the service at Rothiemay to an outreach service.

ONCE again, rural areas are suffering at the hands of "Government cutbacks" with the threatened closure of Forres Jobcentre and the Revenues and Customs Offices in Buckie and Elgin.

ONE of the most pressing issues facing Moray is the rising and crippling cost of fuel: not only fuel at the petrol pump but to heat homes in our rural areas – a dimension often forgotten about by the UK Government.

I DON'T know if you have also felt that we are not very good in this country at publicly appreciating success and acknowledging public service?

LAST Friday I had the pleasure of being keynote speaker at the Moray Carers Information Fair in Elgin.

PARLIAMENT this week has seen the debate about detention of terror suspects, with the Government proposing an extension of the detention without charge period to 42 days.

IN the last year I have had the pleasure of meeting many constituents in the Scottish Parliament, not necessarily to talk about specific issues but simply because they wanted to see what the Parliament is like, be shown around and maybe take in a debate in the chamber.

THE major news story affecting Moray in the last few weeks has been the Inquiry into the Nimrod crash in Afghanistan in which 14 men lost their lives.

THE Burmese cyclone disaster is one of the most distressing international events that I have ever seen.

FIRST of all, thanks to all those who have sent their congratulations following the birth of our new son, Fraser, last week.

FOR the lowest paid workers in Moray and across the country the furore over the 10p tax band continues, with ever growing resentment at the London Government's decision to scrap it.

I WAS delighted to be involved in the presentation of the recent Social Enterprise Awards in Moray in recognition of the fantastic work that they do.

RECENTLY, the SNP Scottish Government has outlined proposals to have to five-year terms for Local government elections in order to have council elections separated from the Scottish Parliament elections by two years.

NEXT week marks the start of the new tax year and the point at which a lot of the Scottish Government's work of the last 10 months comes to fruition.

LAST week saw the Chancellor instigating a smash and grab raid on the whisky industry, with taxes on whisky being ramped up to ridiculous levels.

I AM delighted that two vital projects designed to help vulnerable young people in Moray are to benefit to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds in major lottery grants.

ONE of the biggest issues in recent years has been debated at length in recent weeks, with a key vote that took place on Wednesday.

IT has been a busy couple of weeks in Moray on flooding issues. Last week we had the visit of the Scottish Parliament's Rural Affairs and Environment Committee to Elgin to hear evidence from flood alleviation professionals and householders and businesses who have been hit by flooding in recent years.

IN a further development this week on the long-running military equipment issue, a coroner in England has heavily criticised the MoD, saying they breached soldiers' trust by sending them to Afghanistan without basic equipment.

MORAY RESIDENTS can breathe a sigh of relief that their Council Tax bill is at least one bill that won't be going up this year.

THIS WEEK has seen the spectacle of so-called 'Super Tuesday' in the United States presidential race.

I HAVE BEEN struck by the food revolution that is taking place the length and breadth of Scotland, especially in Moray, and I had the opportunity this week of meeting with the Highlands and Islands Food and Drink Forum on this passionate subject.

AN ISSUE of particular concern that has arisen this week has been the revelation that a senior government adviser holds the view that Scotland is "narrow, Presbyterian and racist".

I WAS delighted to hear Moray Council's announcement that they will be able to support the SNP's Council Tax freeze, as we promised back in the May elections.

IT'S CERTAINLY been a busy 2007, not least because of the formation of the first SNP Scottish Government and the challenges that has presented to everyone in the party.

THERE has been another major data loss announced this week by the Westminster Government, which is a matter of great concern.

MUCH HAS been made in recent days of the failure of the Westminster Government to implement in full the pay settlement negotiated with the police, while in Scotland the same pay settlement has been agreed by the Scottish Government and backdated to the beginning of September.

THE NEWS that Moray Council has reached a unanimous decision on finally taking forward plans for new schools is not before time.

TODAY MARKS Scotland's national day, and I am delighted that one of the SNP Government's early commitments was to increase the profile of St Andrew's Day and make it a celebration of Scotland's culture, people and products.

ON A RATHER worrying note, it has been reported this week that HM Revenue and Customs has lost disks containing the details of 25 million child benefit recipients, including names and addresses, dates of birth and bank accounts.

DURING the week, I was guest speaker at Moray Entrepreneurs. It was hugely encouraging to meet so many talented and ambitious business people who have had the courage to take a risk and start up their own businesses.

It's been a busy week in Westminster and with plenty of controversy, not least of which was the meeting between DEFRA Minister Hilary Benn and Scottish farmers who were in London to press their case for compensation.

LAST Sunday I travelled to the fishing village of Eyemouth in the Borders where I had been asked to unveil memorial sculptures to the Eymouth Fishing Disaster of 1881.

IT seems that following a bout of bad polls the Prime Minister has now received an innoculation for the dreaded "election fever" which he appeared to be suffering in recent weeks.

THE COVERAGE of this week’s Labour Conference has certainly been the major political story of the week, although I’m not sure how far that interest extends in Moray’s households!

THE Scottish Government has announced a review of the guidance governing hospital car parking charges.

THIS week has seen the return of the RAF Regiment service personnel who were stationed in Afghanistan, sadly missing their colleague SAC Christopher Bridge, who died in an explosion while on patrol in Kandahar.

I HAD the pleasure this week of being at the opening of the Glenlivet Smugglers Trails that promotes three of Moray's greatest assets, whisky, walking facilities and beautiful scenery.

ONE OF the most distasteful issues I have to deal with as Environment and Rural Affairs Secretary is wildlife crime.

CONSUMER scams are rarely out of the news these days. However, a recent article drew my eye to a particular problem.

I WELCOME THE coverage that "The Northern Scot" is giving to the crucial issue of road safety. It is an issue that I have taken up both in parliament and with agencies such as Grampian Police.

AFTER a very eventful few months, Parliament has now gone into summer recess, giving me some very welcome extra time in Moray, not least to spend time with my long-suffering family!

UNFORTUNATELY, BUT not unexpectedly, I find myself having to open my remarks with a comment on the aftermath of a terror attack on Scottish soil.

THIS WEEK a report published by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) revealed that Scotland is not the best wee country in the world, as previous First Minister Jack McConnell used to claim.

A REPORT out this week by the National Dental Inspection Programme has shown that just under half of five-year-olds in Grampian have signs of tooth decay.

THE ELECTION of Scotland's first minority government is not only historic but will hopefully herald a new political era.

THIS WEEK I took part in a national hustings event in Edinburgh, organised by a wide range of organisations representing rural interests.

IT'S CERTAINLY been a mixed bag of issues in the last couple of weeks, the big issue at Westminster being the Trident debate and, at the time of writing, the possibility of a major backbench rebellion against the Prime Minister's proposals.

IN RECENT weeks it seems that there is one worrying announcement after another from the Ministry of Defence.

LAST week, after a study involving 2,500 scientists, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that global climate change is "very likely" to have a human cause.

THIS WEEK saw the moving remembrance service at RAF Kinloss, where over 2,000 gathered to pay their respects to the 14 brave airmen who gave their lives in Afghanistan.

RECENT SHOCKING figures obtained by the SNP under Freedom of Information from the Scottish Ambulance Service show that there is an increasing trend in assaults on ambulance staff.

IN 1707 A group of nobles put their signatures to the Treaty of Union.

MY CASEWORK is dominated by housing issues, given the chronic lack of housing in Moray and the number of local families struggling to acquire a permanent roof over their heads.

HOGMANAY AND New Year have traditionally been about making a fresh start, saying goodbye to the previous year, whether it was good or bad, and looking forward to the future.

MANY OF our rural sub-post offices in Moray will spend 2007 battling for survival following the UK Government's statement recently announcing a massive closure programme.

THE LAST couple of weeks have seen the release of the annual GERS report by the Scottish Executive, GERS meaning "Government Expenditure and Revenue Statistics".

NOW WE are in the middle of winter, it is likely the demand for beds in our local hospitals will increase.

THIS WEEK has seen the announcement by the Prime Minister of plans to replace Trident with a new generation of nuclear weapons that will continue to be based on the Clyde.

THIS week has seen FirstScotrail announce inflation busting price rises on rail fares in Moray and across Scotland.

THIS WEEK I had the opportunity to visit Norway with my SNP colleague and party leader Alex Salmond MP.

HARD-PRESSED customers will be aghast to learn that ScottishPower have announced a massive rise of 77% in their half year profits.

LAST week the SNP in Westminster, along with our Plaid Cymru colleagues, used our allocated time in Parliament to give MPs an opportunity for an overdue debate on the Government's actions in relation to Iraq.

THERE HAS been much publicity surrounding the decision to implement Anti-Social Behaviour Orders on unruly individuals causing havoc in Forres town centre.

THE SNP Annual Conference in Perth last week was a resounding success, with even the seasoned media hacks now accepting that the Party is the hot favourite to win next year's Scottish elections.

THE summer recess has come to an abrupt end and Parliament is back in session.

THIS week the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) produced a 10-year report on the state of the Scottish environment, and the diagnosis is not good.

A FRIEND finally persuaded me to fulfil a long-held ambition to go on a cycling holiday.

A FEW weeks ago I visited the street where my granny used to live. At the spot where her house once stood there are some retirement flats. Only the surviving neighbouring buildings give a sense of what her home looked like before it was flattened by bombs in 1943.

READERS MAY recall the news that a variety of formerly secret papers were released showing civil servants in the 1970s concluding that Scotland’s economy “would tend to be in chronic surplus to a quite embarrassing degree”.

IN THE LAST fortnight there has been almost daily news about flights from the US taking bombs to Israel and stopping for refuelling at Prestwick.

THIS WEEK saw the release of the National Dental Inspection Programme report of Primary 7 children for 2005 which was produced by the Scottish Dental Epidemiological Co-ordinating Committee as a result of collaborative work between all Scottish NHS Boards, Scottish Local Authorities and the Dental Health Services Research Unit in Dundee.

I AM SURE that everyone will have seen the news of the growing conflict between Israel and The Lebanon.

AT LONG last the UK energy review was unveiled this week and told us exactly what Blair had decided long ago – that we need new nuclear power stations.

SOMETIMES some very unexpected things come up, and this week it was more something that can 'go up'!

TOM McCabe, the Finance Minister in Scotland’s Labour-Lib Dem coalition government, shocked MSPs this week by announcing that he had conjured up an extra £800m pot of cash that – surprise, surprise – is available to be spent or pledged in the run-up to next year’s Scottish elections.

IF SOME media reports are to be believed, then faith groups are on the way out. Apparently there is little respect for the churches and the pews are emptying. However, my recent impressions as a member of parliament are that the opposite is the case.