Scottish Tourism Week 2012 is drawing to a close and I was delighted to have been able to support the Scottish Tourism Forum's special work this week to promote tourism in Scotland.
The Scottish Tourism Forum asked MSPs in parliament this week to pledge their support for Scottish Tourism Week and to identify the key tourism priorities for their area.
I believe the most important thing in the Mid Scotland and Fife region is to have better hotels and improved, better transport links. This is something I will be working towards this coming year.
Scotland is an absolutely amazing country. A diverse, breathtakingly beautiful and vibrant part of the UK and I will do everything I can to promote tourism not just in the region I represent, but across Scotland.
I was pleased to secure a Members Debate in the Parliament this week highlighting the issues of the Living Wage - Tackling In-work Poverty. I also spoke about the impact of the Living Wage on raising women's incomes and the effect this has on tackling child poverty.
The text of my motion is as follows:
That the Parliament notes the Campaign to End Child Poverty‟s report that highlights the worryingly high levels of child poverty across many areas of Scotland; is deeply concerned that in many areas, including parts of Mid Scotland and Fife, child poverty levels are between 30% and 40%; further notes that 59% of poor children live in a household where at least one adult works; recognises the calls from a range of campaigning organisations such as Save the Children that the payment of a living wage can be an effective way of tackling child poverty; welcomes recent steps to introduce a living wage for all directly employed Scottish Government and NHS employees in Scotland; believes that the living wage should be the norm in other sectors of the economy, and supports steps to use procurement to extend the living wage to employees working for organisations delivering public sector contracts.
This week, I am sponsoring the Scottish Passive House Centre (SPHC) exhibition 
which is taking place in the Scottish Parliament.
A passive house is one which is energy efficient. The SPHC website sums it up best when it says:
A passive house is an energy-efficient building that has year-round comfort and good indoor climate without the use of active space heating or cooling systems. The space heating requirement is reduced by means of passive measures to the point that there is no longer any need for a conventional heating system.
Having visited them last year in Rosyth, I am really pleased other MSPs are getting the chance to find out about their great work.
The Scottish Government have announced that the name of the Replacement Forth Crossing will be decided by members of the public.
An advisory panel will put forward a shortlist of potential names to be put to the public vote in 2013.
I've had a few suggestions from constituents already as to what the bridge should be called and would be pleased to forward ideas to the shortlisting panel when it is established.
Details of the process are on the Transport Scotland website.
I was pleased to meet with Kinship Carers from Clackmannanshire at lunchtime today to listen to their concerns about changes to Kinship Care allowances.
Their petition calls on the Scottish Government to ensure local authorities ring-fence any payments for kinship carers and to implement the recommendations from the Scottish Government’s Local Government Concordat for 2008-2011.
The petition will now be considered by the Scottish Parliament's Public Petitions Committee.
I conduct roving surgeries on Mondays or can meet by appointment. I'm always keen to hear from the people I represent.
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