FOR those of us who follow Scottish politics closely, there’s a lot we could get vocal about these days. With two election campaigns now simultaneously under way for control over local councils and for Scotland’s representatives at Westminster, the next six weeks will provide lots to talk about.

The future of our locally run services, our schools, our social care needs, our roads, and our support for business are all at stake at the polls on May 4.

Labour’s catastrophically inept handling of Scottish councils has been under the microscope for some time, and their poor record has been laid bare for all to see.

In Clackmannanshire, for example, Labour’s ill-thought-out PFI projects are costing local council tax payers an additional £8 million in this year alone. At the same time, the potential for disaster from Tory-led councils has come under less scrutiny so far, but as I knocked on doors in Perthshire on Saturday afternoon it was clear that people there fear the damage that proposed Tory cuts will do to our local services.

The Westminster election has its own set of contentious issues to get het up over. The head-long rush towards an economically and socially disastrous hard Brexit would be devastating for Scotland.

The growing horror around the Tory support for their proposals to limit support for working families on low pay and with three children, and to introduce the rape clause has been met with increasing public concern.

Earlier this week, Ruth Davidson’s photocall on a mobility vehicle was ill-considered, coming at the same time as she supports Tory cuts which mean that 800 disabled people a week are losing their Motability cars due to changes to their benefits.

There’s plenty to be angry about.

But those of us who believe in progressive politics should understand the importance of setting out our own positive agenda.

We also need to give voters something to believe in.

The SNP’s manifesto for the local government elections is a positive prospectus for how our local government could deliver progress for people all over the country. Providing more free childcare will transform early learning and support women back into work, while our promise to increase spending in our schools will help to address the educational inequalities that hold all of us back.

We’ll increase Scotland’s provision of affordable housing, and ensure that at least one per cent of council budgets are directly decided by communities themselves, devolving power to people across the country.

We’ll also continue to back our small businesses, ensuring that this backbone of our local economies not only continue to benefit from the small business bonus scheme, but that they can receive additional funding decided locally to get support to where it’s most needed.

As we turn our attentions to the General Election in June, we need to be positive about the role the SNP MPs have played over the past two years in ensuring Scotland’s voice is heard, and in providing an effective opposition to the Tories from Westminster’s green benches.

As well as serving our constituents at home, we’ve stood up for victims of domestic violence, people who have unfairly lost their benefits or vital tax credit payments and ensured that the voice of WASPI women has been heard loud and clear at every level.

We’ve set out the positive case for Scotland remaining in the European single market, and stood up for our own Scottish Parliament to be able to make vital decisions on our future, from building a 21st-century social security system to deciding our own constitutional future.

Now more than ever, we need to make a positive case for independence and how this will provide the best future for Scotland.

Let’s make sure we fulfil our responsibility to highlight the holes in the arguments of others, or to highlight injustice or inequality wherever it takes hold.

But let’s also make clear that only a vote for the SNP next week, and again on June 8, will be a vote to make a positive difference to the communities we live in and to improve the lives of everyone in Scotland, not just the wealthy few.