AND so the formalities begin.

This week at Westminster we elected our new Speaker of the House of Commons (meet the new Speaker, same as the old Speaker) and, crucially, were sworn in to office.

Now that all 650 MPs have been sworn in, the business of Parliament can begin.

The election of Speaker was a somewhat strange affair. This was the first time that the Chamber was filled

with MPs following the election and readers might have read in the press earlier this week that there was a carry on with seating arrangements.

With the exception of the government front bench, MPs from any party can sit anywhere they like. However, the House of Commons is largely governed by unwritten precedent rules as opposed to anything else.

That means that now the SNP is the third largest party, convention determines that we sit to the left of Labour (literally and politically).

However, some of the more mischievous Labour MPs were determined to stop the SNP sitting as one bloc.

It was the most childish behaviour I've seen in a while.

Contrary to press reports the old Labour stalwart, Dennis Skinner - a man for whom I have much respect - sat quite comfortably with SNP members, no doubt understanding that he will have more in common with our politics than many in his party's own front bench.

Then to the Swearing In ceremony. I use the term 'ceremony' loosely. Given that everything else in Westminster has bells and whistles attached, I was expecting some well-rehearsed arcane ritual to go through. I was wrong. All I had to do was join a queue. It was the most British of ceremonies.

Now that all of this procedural stuff is behind us we can get on to the business of politics.I'm delighted to join colleagues in the SNP's policy group on matters which cross over as devolved and reserved issues. That will give me a good opportunity to make the case for Scotland not to be left out of national infrastructure projects such as HS2.

These types of project are massive in terms of job creation and I'll be arguing that Scotland cannot be forgotten about, and the benefits must come here too.

Next week Mr Cameron's government will outline its priorities in the Queen's Speech. It is our job - as SNP MPs - to articulate an effective opposition to Tory attempts to undermine our Parliament in Scotland.

Next week is when things start to get interesting.