Mhairi Black, Flowjob the drag queen, and an unfortunate incident at a Paisley primary school

What on earth is going on in my old home town of Paisley? Mhairi Black, local MP and the SNP’s Scottish spokesperson at Westminster, is at the centre of an extraordinary row. She took a drag queen – a colourful character who travels under the name “Flowjob” apparently – to read a story at a school in the town. Incredibly, the children were in Primary One, that is they are just starting out on the journey of life.

Those who have scrutinised Mr Flowjob’s online accounts tell me that they feature all manner of highly sexualised material.

Saying that there is fury from parents and the wider community is putting it mildly. The Scottish media is reporting a tidal wave of outrage.

The school initially defended the event. The local authority has got involved. Now the SNP’s education spokesman in the Scottish government, former leader John Sweeney, one of the fallback replacement leadership options if Nicola Sturgeon has to resign in the wake of the forthcoming Alex Salmond trial, is being pursued for answers.

Black has lashed out at critics, accusing them of homophobia. This has failed to calm the situation.

The SNP’s top new spindoctor has also become embroiled after musing in a late-night tweet that he couldn’t see what the fuss is about when parents take their children to the pantomime featuring drag acts. Sometimes in Glasgow panto, I’m told, the Krankies are involved.

Foote tweeted: “I could be wrong but do thousands of parents not voluntarily take their primary age kids along to see drag acts in pantomime every Christmas?”

It turned out Foote could be wrong. This morning he clarified his position:

“In hindsight this tweet lacked the necessary qualification around some of the legitimate parental concerns about social media posts. I was attempting to make too broad a point.”

Attempting to make too broad a point. That’s one way of putting it.

Foote, a former editor of The Daily Record, needs to watch out with the ever suspicious Nats because he is only a recent convert to the cause. He is credited as one of the original authors of “The Vow” – the devolutionist pledge promising Scotland more powers to which Gordon Brown put his name in the final days of the 2014 referendum campaign when the Unionist side needed help.

The Vow was, it is said, literally drawn up on the back of a beermat by Foote and a Unionist associate. They then had it done up like a mock scroll and put on the front page of the tabloid Daily Record, to the fury of the Nats who saw it as a last minute attempt to hoodwink the voters.

Foote has since moved in a nationalist direction, recently joining up with Sturgeon as spindoctor. There is plenty of work for him to do.

This latest Paisley-rooted row follows the resignation of Derek Mackay, over a sexting scandal. The disgraced Mackay used to run the local council and is MSP – still – for a seat which takes in part of Paisley.

What is happening to the place and its politicians? Paisley has actually been doing rather better with a long-running programme of regeneration. The SNP seems more interested in degeneration.

As a Paisley person, albeit one in exile, I am flabbergasted. One half of the town was until 2015 represented by the cerebral son of the manse Douglas Alexander for Labour. While I can imagine Douglas opting to take a Nobel Prize-winning economist in to tell Primary One pupils an improving story about income redistribution and regional policy, he would never for a second think it a remotely good idea to do what Black has done.

A seasoned observer of the Scottish scene says that Paisley’s other MSP George Adam, the straight-laced SNP chief whip (no jokes about whips here), will not like any of this either: “George  is an old-fashioned guy who thinks the local electorate think the party should be getting on with the day job rather than the flowjob.”

But then perhaps some of the voters in my home town prefer the Black approach. Sufficient numbers of Paisley persons adore Black and they made her MP. The self-defined working class hero Black is actually from a nice part of Paisley, called Ralston, overlooking the golf course, incidentally. But this is rarely mentioned.

Anyway. Do not Google “Flowjob,” or Paisley, it seems.