Hurricane Alex?

News that Alex Salmond might be taking his Fringe show on tour will potentially cause as much consternation in the SNP leadership as amongst their opponents (Your report, 29 August). During his run at the Edinburgh Fringe he managed to offer yet another prediction of when Scotland would vote for independence, this time saying before 2021, despite Nicola Sturgeon preferring just now to try to keep the focus on Brexit. He insulted the press, saying they were “despised” and dismissed the majority of Scotland’s political journalists as “a waste of space”, triggering a rebuke from Reporters Without Borders, an internationally respected organization campaigning for press freedom, saying his comments encouraged a “hostile attitude towards the press” and eroded “the climate for free expression”. Then he filled the vacuum of uncertainty about what the SNP’S approach to currency for an independent Scotland would be, saying it should now be a new Scottish currency, ahead of the findings of the SNP’S Growth Commission on this topic being made public.

To be fair, Alex Salmond does not have a formal role in the SNP just now, so presumably is not bound by the usual restrictions for SNP MPS and

MSPS to keep on message. Perhaps Nicola Sturgeon will in due course be tempted to give him a job to rein him in a little. KEITH HOWELL

White Moss West Linton, Peeblesshire