FOR a great many people in rural Scotland the use of a car is a simple necessity - and not a luxury.

IT'S been recess for the Scottish Parliament and I had a busy round of ministerial and constituency appointments planned to attend to over the week.

LAST week in Holyrood saw this years budget pass its first stage in the process of its approval. Without approval of the budget, the public sector bills cannot be paid.

THIS time of year poses many risks for hillwalkers and mountaineers.

READERS may have seen that the local community Badenoch and Strathspey Community transport scheme - possibly the best one in Britain - is now using an electric car.

THE event started harmlessly enough. The audience was mostly school pupils of about 14 to 16-years-old.

IN Holyrood, Finance Minister John Swinney has set out the draft budget for the coming year.

BRIGADIER David Allfrey is one of those speakers who bowls over an audience with a tsunami of enthusiasm for his subject.

EVERY son is proud of his mother. But there can have been very few sons who have been able to witness their mother reconvene a parliament!

ANYONE who has visited the Scottish Parliament building in Edinburgh is likely to have noticed the quotations inscribed into the Canongate wall.

I HAD the great pleasure of introducing two brothers, Donald and Brian Barr, at the launch in Newtonmore Village Hall of their jointly written book on the River Spey: The Spey – From Source To Sea.

FOR the second year, Council Tax bills in Highland should be frozen, meaning they will be kept to the same amount as last year.

SCOTTISH Government Finance Minister John Swinney has just set out the budget for the coming year.

THIS week in the Scottish Parliament was the happiest for me in my near 10 years as local MSP.

IN my constituency post bag recently was a letter from Inverness hotelier Nicol Manson who was writing on behalf of the Highlands & Loch Ness marketing group.

IT was the US comedian Bob Hope who said that "a bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don't need it."

"BROUGHT down by a bunch of spivs and speculators", was the First Minister Alex Salmond's verdict on the Bank of Scotland, an institution given a clean bill of health by the Financial Standards Authority on the day of its demise.

HAVING attended seven Highland Games and agricultural shows over the summer, it appears to me that they may be growing in popularity.

READERS will be able to tell from its appearance or odour when a piece of meat has gone off – and is inedible. So too, there is a sense in politics when a Government has exceeded its own "sell by" date.

I LAUNCHED a new framework for youth justice policy recently in the Scottish Parliament.

THE world oil price is $135 a barrel as I write. Prices of petrol and diesel have seen the greatest rises in the Highlands - with prices of 138 per litre for diesel charged this week in one rural garage.

LAST week in the Scottish Parliament, I had a series of meetings to work on the drugs strategy which I hope will be launched next month.

SMALL businesses are the backbone of Badenoch and Strathspey, and many have been in family hands for decades, if not longer.

THE Scottish Government changed the law earlier this week to end the payment of the graduate endowment by students.

THE SNP Government achieved a milestone – the approval, albeit by 64 votes to 62, of our budget – in the Scottish Parliament last week.

THE Scottish Government announced we will not take any central action to reduce the number of fire and rescue control rooms.

FIRST Minister Alex Salmond receives hundreds of invitations to attend functions and events throughout Scotland. Those he cannot attend are often passed on to other Ministers and so it was that I deputised for him at the Royal Yacht Britannia.

THIS week in the Scottish Parliament, my colleague Shona Robison MSP, Minister for Public Health, moved to raise the legal minimum age for buying cigarettes from 16 to 18.

THE summer months are here and for many it's a time to unwind and relax.

RECENTLY in Holyrood, I occupied the Minister's seat on the front bench for the first time, taking part in no fewer than three debates: crime in general and our plans for tackling it and its causes; on treatment of sex offenders; and on who is responsible for rescuing people from rivers.

DURING the election campaign I had some lively and on occasion unusual discussions.

THIS week my party used our debating time in the Scottish Parliament to emphasise two policies.

GLENMORE Lodge is Scotland's outdoor centre. It provides a place for experts in mountaincraft, winter skills and outdoor pursuits to meet work exchange ideas, and for Scotland's children to have the best leadership and instruction.

JUDGING from the coughing and spluttering, many MSPs in the Chamber, including yours truly, have been struggling with flu, colds and worse.

ROAD pricing has been put forward as a policy by both Labour and the Lib Dems. The 'pay as you go' method of paying for road transport is promoted as having a number of potential benefits.

OVER the summer months I visited many Highland Games and agricultural shows.

A POLITICIAN should function like a barometer, as an instrument for measuring the pressure of public opinion at any given time. There is no doubt that the political mercury level is rising in measuring the public concerns about the cost of fuel.

THE disturbing case of David Penman was first highlighted in a Sunday newspaper at the end of June.

MEMBERS' Business debates take place at 5pm every Wednesday and Thursday.