Society

Home It would be ‘extremely difficult, if not impossible’ for an independent Scotland to join the European Union, José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, said on British television. Alex Salmond, the leader of the Scottish National Party, said that if an independent Scotland was not allowed to use the pound, it would cost the rest of the United Kingdom £500 million in transaction costs per year, and Scotland would refuse its share of the national debt. Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, warned that uncertainty produced by a referendum on EU membership would mean that businesses held off from making investment. The Unite union called off a

Bridge players are a generous bunch — both with their expertise and their time. There are many charity events to which they contribute willingly, but the one that has become the most successful is Terry Hewett’s Night of the Stars. This year it is being held on 27 February at the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability and the indomitable Terry has auctioned 53 ‘stars’ to play with their sponsors, the proceeds going to four different charities. Last year Italian superstar Fulvio Fantoni came over — at his own expense— and was snapped up by my friend Jonathan Harris. How do great players always seem to put the defence to a guess

Each of thirteen clues contains a superfluous word. Initial letters of these words spell the first four words of a quotation (in ODQ), the rest of which is supplied by two unclued lights (one of which consists of two words); another unclued light is the author’s surname. Clues in italics consist of cryptic indications of partial answers; in each case, the indicated part is to do as stated by the start of the quotation to create the full answer to be entered in the grid. Definitions of resulting entries are supplied by the remaining unclued lights.   Across   1 Interesting stone in river (5) 9 Can treatment yet help