Hanna Miedema SNP Candidate For Landward Caithness Bi-election

23rd April 2013

Hanna Miedema is the SNP candidate for the Landward Caithness by-election on the 2nd of May. She is 29 years old and grew up at Calder Mains, a few miles outside Halkirk.

During her time away from Caithness, she studied Zoology and Animal Science at Edinburgh University. She also worked in research for a while, in Edinburgh and Canada, which gave her the chance to travel for conferences and holidays. Hanna said �Living in Canada for a while made me notice certain things that I missed about Scotland - mainly the sarcastic humour and old buildings. Now I really appreciate the dry stone walls and flagstone fences in Caithness, and am learning how to build and maintain them from a local master craftsman, George Gunn. Since returning to Caithness last year, I have learnt a lot of new practical skills and met lots of great people.

�The reason that I'm asking for your support is because I'm going with the advice of one of my close friends. Beth's approach to life is; �Be receptive, be responsive, be amazing!� so when I read Robert Coghill's article in the Groat announcing that he was standing down, I thought I'd give it a shot. The SNP as a party has always appealed to me because of their positivity and their big dream. If you're going to go for something, you might as well make it substantial.

This campaign isn't about Scottish Independence though, it's about Caithness. My main interest and concern in life is food. My boyfriend likes to tease me about this but it's essential. I believe that encouraging local food production would have a really positive effect. If we can buy more food locally it would help the farmers, create more jobs, keep people healthier, and show that there's no need to ship things like carrots and cabbages from other places (bananas are a different story). Food is something that everyone needs and links us all together. If we get the basics sorted out first, the rest will follow.

This is only one of the issues I feel can be addressed locally, there are many more I would like to talk to people about. I'm excited to be a part of this by-election and would love to hear from you about any local issues that you feel strongly about. I'll be out meeting and talking to as many people as possible over the coming weeks but can be contacted most easily by email at hanna.miedema.snp[AT]gmail.com.�

Gail Ross, SNP Councillor for Wick and Caithness Civic Leader said �We have an excellent candidate for Landward Caithness in Hanna. She�s down to earth and intelligent but most importantly she cares and is knowledgeable about local issues. As part of an SNP led administration in the Highland Council she will be able to have an impact on the changes that are needed here and I know we can work well together for the good of the county.�

Rob Gibson MSP added �Electing Hanna as your representative in Landward Caithness will ensure the needs and aspirations of the people can be met in a strong administration in Highland Council. We need more vibrant young people with fresh ideas and a go get �em attitude and she certainly has that.�