PAISLEY has rarely had so cosmopolitan a feel.

The weather has been near Mediterranean, the sunshine doing wonders for the faded grandeur of the town's Victorian character.

Scotland's largest beer festival is well underway in the shadow of Paisley's medieval Abbey, over 300 varieties of ales from across the globe, with a jamboree of international food to boot.

There are more than a few exotic accents around too. In town are news crews from CNN, the New York Times, Japan and Brazil. Their interest is a 20-year-old student threatening to become one of the stories of the General Election. Mhairi Black, a rookie who was politically blooded during the Referendum and who only joined the SNP in 2011, is, according to one poll, 11 points ahead of Labour's Douglas Alexander, one of the most powerful and recognisable Scots at Westminster in the past decade.

Despite his fresh face and relative youth compared with most MPs, Black was just two when Alexander first became the Paisley and Renfrewshire South MP in 1997.

Now its Black and the electorate of places like Elderslie, Foxbar and Johnstone standing between his potential elevation to representing the UK on the world stage as the next Foreign Minister.

Coordinating Labour's UK campaign (Ed Miliband's defiance of the expectations of many suggesting he's doing not too bad a job), Alexander is taking on Tory deficit hawks to his right and anti-austerity rhetoric from the SNP to his left.

He also has a seat to defend. After morning interviews on Miliband's comments on the crisis in Libya, Alexander is on the doorsteps of the1960s concrete cul-de-sacs of Spateston, a "Glasgow overspill" area with an ageing population: prime Labour loyalist terrain.

How is Alexander himself holding up?

"I love campaigning, I love Renfrewshire and I love Labour. What's not to enjoy? But I'm not getting much sleep", he says.

"In Renfrewshire, as in Runcorn, people are realising that underneath the polls and headlines there is a fundamental truth. This is a choice between and Labour and Tory government. "Politicians crave having these conversations with the public."

In nearby Johnstone, another Labour stronghold, the reception is also good.

Out on the stall local MSP Neil Bibby says Alexander's local profile and being a Renfrewshire native is a big boost. But isn't there a risk being so recognisable he may carry the can for the wave of anti-Westminster establishment sentiment sweeping Scottish politics? Alexander says: "The way I do this job is to serve a community and serve a cause. That cause is Labour but it's also Renfrewshire.

"People will see me carrying out my surgeries in Morrisons in Johnstone on Fridays and on Question Time the night before. You can be both local and have national influence, which in a campaign is a good thing to have."

Black too has had a national profile, despite her political career being barely in its infancy.

Not long after her selection, having been mentored by veteran Nationalist talisman Jim Sillars, footage emerged of her claiming she wanted to "put the nut" on Labour councillors, along with social media posts slagging off Celtic fans.

Opponents wanted her sacked from the former, while some accused her of sectarianism for the latter. (Black was baptized a Catholic. Her family continue to practice.)

Notably, given the SNP's reputation for cast-iron discipline, Black conducts her interviews without a party chaperone. Over coffee in Paisley she bears no resemblance to the caricature depicted.

The media spotlight has been "a bit bizarre", she says. "It's highlighting how important and unique this election is.

"What we saw in the first days was our opponents trying to portray me as something inaccurate. Its mudslinging, old school politics just trying to make it about personalities. . That in itself highlights how inept and desperate they are."

Instead, according to Black, people want to talk about austerity, her primary focus if elected. Is she taking the polls on board?

"Loyalty is a strong thing, especially if its been drummed into you your whole life. Some people are struggling to let go of that, they would feel guilty about moving to other parties.

"But I'm heartened this minority are outnumbered by the disillusioned who are saying 'you know what, it's not me who should be feeling guilty but the party which has abandoned me which should'."