Twirling, Twirling, Twirling toward Independence

Here we are at the SNP Press and
Research office inside the Parliament Building. This is where the press officers keep track of the media coverage the party gets, set up interviews, and get quotes to the newspapers. The press here in the UK is required by law to give equal coverage to all political parties; most political articles have quotes from both Labour and the main opposition party, the SNP. I worked in this office for the first few weeks of the internship, then moved to the SNP Headquarters office on MacDonald Road. Here I have been working on policy briefs for Mhairi Hunter, who is the manager over the party's policy division. It's been good to work at both locations, as I've had experience with both the media and public image of the party, and the policy side HQ.
Rich, Nichole, John Fellows, Liz, and John. John Fellows is our boss. He works mostly at the Press Office, but he bikes to and from parliament and headquarters, so Rich and I see him a couple times a week. He is an important figure to the party and puts in a lot of time - most of the employees, we've noticed, work very long hours. He's very busy, but he is approachable and has been helpful on some of the briefs I have been writing. This next bit has nothing to do with work - John has been recently engaged and will be married next November. Maybe some future interns will get to attend the wedding?

This is us four interns with MSP Brian Adam. Mr Adam hails from Aberdeen, and is th shadow deputy transport minister for the SNP. He is also LDS! He has been helpful, especially during the first few weeks. In fact, he made sure we got our security passes quickly - otherwise we would have gotten them in December, right before we left, like other interns have had to do. This picture was taken at the party conference - Nichole finally got her Scottish Flag, aka Saltire, and Rich is giving a 'thumbs-up' for independence.