Good heavens. Just when you think events north of the border can’t get any more ridiculous, they do. Now it has emerged that the director of an, er, hardcore porn project managed to secure £85,000 from government-backed Creative Scotland in January.

The production, directed by Leonie Rae Gasson and titled ‘Rein’, was set to involve ‘pornographic processes’ to film in the Highlands, while research for the project included a nine-minute sexually explicit film that aims to take viewers on a ‘magical, erotic journey through a distinctly Scottish landscape’. What’s more, recruitment ads for Rein, which offered a daily fee of £270 for ‘hardcore’ acts, were advertised on the websites of publicly-funded arts groups. Gasson describes herself as someone who approaches her work ‘from a queer and neurodivergent perspective’, and says her project is ‘pro-sex worker’, with ‘intimacy co-ordinators’ on hand to support cast members.

It’s fair to say that the whole palaver has been rather embarrassing for Scottish government-funded Creative Scotland, which is now desperately trying to claw back the funds. A statement released by the organisation on Thursday suggested that Gasson had broken her contract by changing her initial proposal:

Creative Scotland has made the decision to withdraw support for this project and will be seeking recovery of funding paid in respect of this award to date. What has emerged in the latest phase of the project represents a breach of the conditions of funding award, as the nature of the project has changed.

As it scrambles to get taxpayers’ cash back, Creative Scotland has some serious questions to answer. How exactly did public money end up being allocated to the project? Penny Mordaunt has likened the film to a ‘hardcore porn movie’ while Labour MSP Neil Bibby has called for Gasson’s entire funding application to be published in full. And, for once, SNP culture secretary Angus Robertson agreed, adding: ‘I can see no way that what has been described should be in receipt of public funding.’ A review is now underway…

Criticism of the handling of Scotland’s public finances has been well-documented, but this case is simply baffling. Mr S only hopes that Creative Scotland will clean up its act soon…