I would like to start by wishing everybody in Turriff a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year when it comes.
I am sure that most people will be hoping for a break from politics over the festive period after the first winter general election since 1935.
Even those of us who are in parliament will be keen to take the chance to spend time with family and friends after a gruelling campaign.
But I do want to take the opportunity to thank everyone who helped with my bid for re- election as MP for Banff and Buchan.
And I want to say to the 21,182 voters who put their faith in me to represent this beautiful constituency in Westminster – I will not let you down.
I also want to send a message to those who did not vote for me.
My pledge is to work tirelessly for all constituents – no matter which party they supported or even if they didn’t vote at all.
And I want to be clear that I will always make myself available to offer help to anyone who needs it.
During the last parliament, my team and I answered some 7,000 constituency queries and held more than 300 advice surgeries – including my 65-stop Summer Surgery Tour in August.
Very often, the day-to-day work of being an MP is not the stuff that appears in the papers or on the evening TV news.
My staff and I tackled a huge volume and variety of issues, all of which we do our best to deal with as quickly and effectively as possible.
That work has already started again after the pause for the general election campaign.
Earlier this week, Her Majesty the Queen was in Westminster to lay out the government’s agenda for the next year at the State Opening of Parliament.
That included more than 30 bills, which covered a range of issues including increased funding for schools, the NHS, police and measures to improve broadband.
While responsibility for education and health is devolved to Holyrood, there will be £3.1bn extra coming to Scotland thanks to the decisions taken by the UK Government.
The new parliament will also bring a sector deal for the North Sea oil and gas industry, guaranteed funding for our farmers until 2024 and a commitment to getting our fishermen out of the Common Fisheries Policy by December 2020.
Workers will also benefit from the pledge to reduce the threshold for National Insurance contributions.
That will save people about £100 – which will particularly help those on low incomes.
But there is a lot more to do – and I look forward to getting down to work, to serve you all as your member of parliament.
