IT WAS an honour to take part in Remembrance Sunday commemorations in Alloa and Sauchie at the weekend.

With 2024 marking 80 years since some of the most momentous turning points of World War II, it was particularly important to mark the sacrifices men and women made in order to protect our freedoms and values.

I was keen to be a part of the solemn commemorations and lay wreaths in the Wee County as we joined the rest of the country in ensuring no one who served in the armed forces is forgotten.

Following the ceremonies, I was pleased to meet some of our very own veterans at Sauchie Resource Centre. The tenacity of our former service personnel, and the camaraderie and sense of togetherness shown, always impresses me.

I will continue to meet with groups such as Wee County Veterans, who do so much for our ex-service men and women, to make sure they receive the support they rightly deserve.

Back in parliament, October has been a busy month with the chancellor’s budget dominating the headlines.

It represents the largest budget settlement ever for Scotland in the history of devolution and I was delighted to get behind just that.

While the SNP would like to divert attention with negative spins, the reality is that they can no longer blame a lack of Westminster funding and simply put, they need to get back to the day job of delivering for Scotland.

After years of financial mismanagement and chaos, they need to fix cash-strapped local authorities which are crumbling under the weight of their choices and decisions.

This budget, the first to be delivered by a female Chancellor, marks an end to Tory austerity. However, I will not stay silent as I believe we should go further to truly tackle the inequities we face in society today, after more than a decade of decline.

Wealth inequalities have soared in recent years. The rich are getting richer off the back of a global pandemic, while being relatively under-taxed.

Billionaire wealth has increased by almost £150 billion between 2020 and 2022 alone – that is not only eye-watering but morally wrong.

The wealth is not being shared with those who helped create it, the everyday worker who toils day and night just to make ends meet.

And while decisions taken by the Labour Government, such as the minimum wage for over 21s increasing to £12.21 an hour from April, will be welcomed by many families, more needs to be done to raise funds for vital public services.

That is why I have called for an extreme wealth tax in the run up to this autumn’s budget.

Trickle-down economics is nothing more than a myth and a wealth tax of two per cent on assets over £10 million could raise around £24 billion a year.

This budget is just the start as we need to rectify the current unfairness in the tax system, in which working people are subject to proportionately higher rates of tax.