IT IS frequently noted that to govern is to choose. As I have equally frequently commented, most politicians of my acquaintance are in an honourable lather of uncertainty much of the time.

That is not because they are lacking in discretionary skill. It is because the decisions they face, especially if they are in office, are often complex and subtle.

What to do with Scotland’s education system? Hospital provision? Upgrade roads – or focus on public transport? Above all, how to stimulate our struggling economy?

Reminding political leaders that “to govern is to choose” is a way of saying: time to close the consultation, time to decide. Even if that decision annoys some people.

But turn this around. To elect is, literally, to choose. And within a month we will be confronted with a choice, the Scotland-wide council elections.

Read more from Brian Taylor: Other than independence, just what are the SNP’s big ideas on the economy?

As we gaze in horror at Ukraine, a shifting war zone but unrelenting bloodshed, this domestic political battle may seem tawdry, even obscene, by comparison.

Not so, not so. It is right, it is essential, that we continue to exercise democratic freedom in the midst of a conflict where such liberties are grossly threatened. These elections matter.

Still, it can be tricky, to say the least, to get misty-eyed about ward contests in, say, Lochee or Lochgelly. Even in multi-member wards, decided by single transferable vote.

Political parties and independent candidates alike may face the customary problem of motivating the electorate, of getting their potential support to vote at all.

Which brings talk of differential turnout. An edge perhaps for a particular party in a particular local authority area. A local or more widespread edge which can nullify or mitigate the impact of Scotland-wide opinion polling swings.

In my experience, politicians are tense souls, even in placid moments. During elections, they can become frenzied.

Just think. How would you like it if your future occupation, your future earnings, were dependent on the whim of a few thousand distracted individuals who may have paid scant attention to your carefully worded leaflet?

Or may have completed their postal ballot before you even delivered your precious document, with its optimistic phrasing and grinning photos?

Read more from Brian Taylor: The Chancellor’s tax plan is an ideological challenge. Sturgeon counters with ideology of her own

Plus canvassing is more tricky now. The key strategy used to be to avoid chapping the door when EastEnders or Coronation Street reached their Big Moment. Now, the TV soaps are on endlessly – and the voters are grumpy, if disturbed.

Still, these elections matter. Local authorities superintend your schools. Teachers teach, but councillors cajole. Councils take the planning decisions that affect your area – unless central government intervenes. Council staff collect your bins.

And, of course, councils collect one more thing. Your council tax. The entire future of local government finance ought to be at stake in these elections. Should we collect more locally, relying less on income tax support? Should we replace the council tax?

This should be a big topic in the weeks ahead. My guess is that it will not. There will be a legitimate dispute over individual council tax levels. But little in the way of strategic thinking.

That is because nobody really likes the council tax but nobody has all that much to offer in the way of a coherent alternative, despite years of discussion. The Scottish Government looked seriously at Local Income Tax and quietly concluded it was a stinker.

Still, these elections matter. They matter at a ward level where your council candidates may be big name party politicians or a local independent.

They matter at council level. They matter in rural areas and in the big cities where the political battles may be rehearsals for Parliamentary contests to come.

Glasgow, for example, tends to attract significant media attention because it symbolises the SNP’s success in seizing control of Labour’s west of Scotland redoubts.

Plus, as always in Scotland, there is the core fault line, independence. Will these council elections add impetus to the demand for indyref2? Or the opposite? They will scarcely prove decisive, but they could affect momentum.

The SNP’s opening message was relayed at the party’s campaign launch yesterday. For this information, I rely upon email communication. Reporters from the mischievous media were not invited to attend the event. All those impudent questions.

Still, I feel certain that Nicola Sturgeon will face the joy of interrogation by The Herald and others, in due course. No doubt repeatedly. It is part of our charm.

For now, we can note that her preview and opening remarks form a political triptych. Back local SNP councillors, blame the Tories for the cost of living crisis and tell Boris Johnson that “Scotland has had enough of his incompetent, sleaze-ridden government”.

A single transferable message, then. A prime focus upon local services, with a rider that Scottish council bills are lower than in England. Nary a mention of Labour. And a broad pointer towards possible independence.

Douglas Ross, for the Conservatives, says these elections are about local priorities, not Boris Johnson. Schools, roads, bins. Council tax as low as possible, with the caveat that services must be defended.

Last time out in council elections, the Tories were second in voting share, behind the SNP. I asked a senior Tory source whether Labour would usurp that second spot. The confident reply? “Absolutely not”.

Labour’s Anas Sarwar has launched his manifesto, with offers to curb public transport costs. He too singled out Boris Johnson as a “corrupt joke” – but advanced Labour, rather than the SNP, as the alternative.

His big economic offer was a windfall tax on oil and tax companies, prompting apparent disquiet from some in Aberdeen Labour. That tax idea is backed by the Liberal Democrats and the Greens, but resisted by the UK Government. The SNP support a broader levy on companies which profited from the pandemic.

For the Liberal Democrats, Alex Cole-Hamilton offers “new hope”. That Scotland-wide message will be accompanied by the party’s customary pavement politics, in areas like the Highlands and Edinburgh, where the LibDems are targeting SNP incumbents.

The Greens are standing a record field of candidates, arguing they can turn the local debate towards the global environment, if given a chance.

Your call. These elections really matter.