Mhairi Black may be finished with politics for now. But on the evidence of her debut Fringe hour, she clearly has an ongoing future in public speaking and cultural commentary. There’s a significant amount of setting her story straight in Politics Isn’t For Me and a few scores settled, though perhaps not as many as might have been hoped. The former SNP MP for Paisley And Renfrewshire South disclaims from the start about the three hot-button individuals she won’t be discussing, though she gets a couple of passing digs in at Alex Salmond and Joanna Cherry.

Witty and self-effacing, she initially plays up to the media image of herself as rough-edged, brassy and fond of a drink. Yet over the course of this show, she pushes back against the caricature and offers mitigation for her media portrayal, not helped by her brother’s mischievous online manipulation of her legend. Her account of speaking at Eton College is as amusing a fish-out-of-water tale as it is depressing for the institution’s outsized influence on the UK by virtue of privilege.

But by far the greater part of Politics Isn’t For Me is given over to the workings of the House Of Commons from her insider’s perspective, the archaic conventions and rules that, at times, are comically out of touch with efficiency and functioning democracy. All very interesting, it feeds into Black’s emerging point that the corridors of power alienate the electorate. However, this focus on process rather than personalities begins to flatline somewhat after a while, with the sense that Black is playing too much close to her chest and diplomatically keeping a lot of her powder dry. 
Mhairi Black: Politics Isn’t For Me, Gilded Balloon At The Museum, until 25 August, 1.15pm.