FROM 1987 until her death in 2006, my wife, Margaret, was the elected representative of the constituency of Moray.
In that capacity, she defended the work of the RAF at the bases in Lossiemouth and Kinloss - and indeed worked to assist the wives of the RAF servicemen with issues such as housing, education and childcare.
She did so without bringing party politics into that work, and I think it is fair to say that she was respected for that approach.
At each of the elections that she fought, the main argument which was used against her, by the Conservatives from whom she won the seat, was that a vote for the SNP would lead to closure of the RAF bases.
This would, they argued, be the inevitable result of independence for Scotland.
The Tory "big guns" - Rifkind, Younger and Forsyth - all added their weight to this charge. Indeed the Lib Dems and the Labour party were happy to adopt that argument as well as the Tories.
Yet this week it was a Conservative-led Government with support from their Lib Dem partners, that has, through their announcement, heralded the closure of Kinloss, and even possibly Lossie too.
In a lifetime in politics, I cannot think of a greater example of political hypocrisy in Scotland than this nor one which will cause more damage to communities there.
Nor can I think of such a shambolic announcement in two respects.
First it is still not clear what the decision will mean - will Kinloss close and if so when; will Lossie be affected and how.
We do not know - they did not say.
Indeed, the Prime Minister himself said "I don't want to talk about base closures".
As David Cameron was saying this in the House of Commons, the community of Kinloss was watching the proceedings needing to know what was going to be their future. They were left in the dark.
The lack of clarity was a disgrace and the lack of preparation for the consequences of those decisions - the need to plan to provide other jobs, and opportunities for those who will lose their jobs - was wholly incompetent.
The effects of these decisions will not be confined to Moray - but will affect many parts of the Highlands.
Many folk living in the Grantown area, for example, work in the bases. Many more businesses supply the bases. Therefore the effects will be felt here, though, of course, Lossie and Kinloss will bear the brunt.
I am sure that the Prime Minister is essentially a decent man who wants to do right by people. However, in the case of the closure of RAF bases in Scotland he has shied away from responsibility. He funked it. One can only conclude that he is basically weak.
It is also the case that Scotland, which has started off from having relatively few defence jobs anyway, compared with England, is now being selected, along with Wales, as the part of the UK where the cuts are to be concentrated. In the game of chess that is UK politics, Scotland is always the pawn.
Over the summer months we have heard very little from the Scotland Office, whose job, traditionally, has been to stand up for the Scottish Interest.
Of course tough decisions do need to be taken. The Scottish Government have, for example, last year made efficiency savings of nearly £1,500 million pounds, much more than estimated.
That was not easy but was accomplished, by John Swinney and the rest of us - his colleagues in the Scottish Government - with consultation and leadership.
The way in which the Government has handled this whole issue of cuts illustrates the sad fact that Scotland's interests cannot be trusted in the hands of Westminster, and that indeed Westminster has in particular botched the whole defence procurement issues for decades - no matter which party is in power.
The Tory Lib Dem administration has cancelled a contract for new planes which have basically already been built.
But it was not their fault - but their predecessors - just as when Tony Blair came to power in 1997, everything was the fault of the Tories. Government is just one long blame game.
What these events show is that the need for Scotland to have powers over these matters is now more urgent so that we are at least able to make our own decisions here rather than being pawns in a Westminster game.
The song is no more
THE SNP Conference at Perth held last week was highly successful.
The decision we have taken as a Government in Scotland to freeze the council tax for a further two years is the right one - especially for those on lower incomes, and for pensioners on fixed incomes.
It is also right that, at a time when we are asking for pay restraint, we do not hike up the bills that people have to pay. Indeed the conference was one of the best I can remember.
I did explain to delegates that there is another reason for the success of the SNP in recent years.
It used to be that the anthem, "Scots Wha Hae" would be sung lustily by delegates - and the singing would be led off by yours truly.
However, that changed some years back. As my former election agent, Aviemore's much-missed Blyth Wright put it: "Fergus, when you stopped singing - we started winnning!"
