REVIEW OF THE YEAR
Posted on Sunday, January 1 2006
For me, as a Member of Parliament, 2005 has been an exciting and busy year, not least because of the election in May when I was re-elected by the people of Moray to serve a second term in parliament on their behalf. I have said previously it is an honour to do so and I will endeavour to repay the trust placed in me by Moray voters.
It has, as usual, been a year of ups and downs with job losses in Buckie and at RAF Lossiemouth. The last month has provided some relief however with the announcement that both RAF bases in Moray now have a secure future. While service work is not the be all and end all of the Moray economy, it is important that their future remains secure, providing an opportunity and the time to diversify and improve industry in the region.
The number of major issues that have come up in 2005 has been quite astonishing. Concern was raised over the future of rural schools and a highly successful campaign was launched that resulted in The Moray Council withdrawing it's proposals to close many schools.
Council workers have been rightly up in arms about pay grading proposals that would have seen many low paid employees losing thousands of pounds through re-grading. This is another issue that is being reconsidered by the council with revised proposals expected next year.
Flooding has been high on the agenda with news of delays and increasing costs, however just recently some early work has been announced that will at least see part of the Elgin works being started.
In the East of the constituency local campaigners against a mobile phone mast proposal in Cullen have had there concerns ignored by Vodafone despite strong representation from the local community both directly and through my own office. It may not be over yet however!
Elsewhere we have seen two particular events that left a mark on 2005, firstly the G8 summit at Gleneagles where world leaders were put under pressure to deal with third world debt and the world aids crisis with some of the biggest protests seen in Scotland. Combined with the 'Live 8' messages from major concerts around the world some progress has been made. Not enough… but at least some.
During the G8 however we saw the ugly side of human nature with the terror attacks on London . At the time of the bombings I was traveling in London and the atmosphere was very surreal.
No matter what grievances anyone has there is never an excuse for terror attacks on innocent civilians in any country of the world by any nation or organisation.
Finally, looking ahead to 2006, the issues that I think will be on the agenda include much of what I have already talked about but additionally climate change will feature very highly, the aftermath of the world trade talks and EU budget discussions, the next generation of Trident nuclear weapons that the government is proposing and a new raft of nuclear power stations. Also in the UK, the crisis affecting the Child Support Agency.
There are many more issues that I have not mentioned and others that will not be foreseen but for the time-being I wish all the folk in Moray the complements of the season and my best wishes for 2006.
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