WHEN I was first asked to write for Voices of Scotland the brief centred around encouraging more people to read and discuss pieces from the Morning Star.

I have tried to do this and more, by asking fellow Labour members to review articles, having Morning Star papers at meetings and Morning Star articles as agenda items on committees, by sharing articles with non-political friends online and by having the newspaper in my car, home and workplace.

I was asked recently what should we fight the next general election on. It certainly wasn’t by a colleague at work or a close personal friend, that is not what they are talking about.

However I will answer the question in a way which reflects my experience of what friends and family see of politics just now. Hours of media coverage from the pollsters and pundits who would have us believe people only want to speak about Brexit and from opposition parties whose only interest is to reinforce that perception.

Meantime anyone who spends time working in communities, campaigning on the doorstep or researching standards of living realises that inequality is the main issue affecting the ordinary person in the street, as the rich get richer and the division between the rich and poor expands greater inequality emerges.

Relatively little time is given by the media to the scandal of child poverty now running in my own local authority at 26 per cent (predicted to rise to 38 per cent) or to the loss of good jobs at Caley, let down by the Scottish government which refused to intervene to support employment in one of the most deprived areas in Scotland.

How much time do the media devote to reporting on the difference in life expectancy for men – with Glasgow’s being seven years below the national average? How much to covering the shocking statistic that overall life expectancy for men in Scotland’s most deprived areas is 13 years lower than the least deprived areas?

No, these are not topics that result in lengthy reports or extended interviews with very serious MSPs talking at great length about ending the crisis.

Instead we are subjected to the tedious monotony of Bojo’s Brexit “deal or no deal” debacle, or the fact that polls show a lurch in Lib Dem support, offering the country nothing but the dreary prospect of a hung parliament.

But what could be reported on that would give friends hope? Sometimes it feels like we only offer a future hope, only if Labour take power, we speak about what we will do in terms which seem to family and friends like an aspiration only possible in a distant future.

But real change does happen when Labour are in power and this is evident in Scotland when Labour controls the local council. What makes me say this?

Let’s look at the local authority adjacent to my own, North Ayrshire Council. Council leader Joe Cullinane has publicly declared that we must oppose cuts to local authorities and must stop the management speak about savings and efficiencies and make it clear to local people that removed or reduced services are due to cuts, plain and simple.

Wouldn’t it be good for my family and friends to hear this reported? That North Ayrshire Council are building council houses and that council-employed staff are working on these homes, and while budgets are tight a Labour-led council will still ensure the terms and conditions for low-paid workers such as care staff?

There are examples from other Labour-led councils — for instance Labour-controlled North Lanarkshire council saw the importance of supporting continued operations at the Caley rail works and they found a novel way of offering an opportunity to keep it running.

It is a little reported fact that the SNP government could not see, or perhaps had no desire to see, the potential this offered and dismissed the proposal which could have offered hope to the plant.
All of this of course was reported in the Morning Star but was conspicuously difficult to find elsewhere in the media.

We must strive to seek balance and to redress the bias towards single issue populist reporting in the media that is stifling debate and switching great swathes of the population off in terms of political activity.

We must do this not only by continuing to support endeavours such as the Morning Star but also by taking the message out to our comrades, friends and families in the wider community to convince them that there is another way, not just in a distant future but here and now.

Carol Mochan was a Labour Party candidate in Ayrshire in 2016 and 2017.