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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 strike at the Faslane and Coulport naval bases in the Clyde. The introduction of a new NHS anonymised data-sharing scheme was delayed by six months. Students elected Edward Snowden, the fugitive leaker of American state secrets, as rector of Glasgow University.

Inflation fell from 2 per cent to 1.9 per cent in January, as measured by the Consumer Prices Index, the first time it had been below the Bank of England’s target of 2 per cent since November 2009; but measured by the Retail Prices Index, it rose from 2.7 per cent to 2.8. Poundland announced its flotation on the Stock Exchange, with an expected value of £700 million. Unemployment fell by 125,000. The Court of Appeal upheld the right of judges to sentence offenders to imprisonment for the rest of their lives, which the European Court of Human Rights had ruled breached a prisoner’s human rights. A British jihadi was suspected of driving a lorry-bomb into a jail in Aleppo. Dave Lee Travis, the former disc jockey, who had sold his house to fund his defence, was acquitted on a dozen charges of indecent assault, dating from the 1970s. Piers Morgan, the former editor of the Daily Mirror had, it emerged, been questioned by police investigating phone hacking.

The nation began to recover from another week of storms and floods, which had affected some 5,000 houses. Hundreds of thousands were left without electricity for a time after winds, some of more than 100mph, swirled in from the Atlantic. The Thames rose to its highest level for 60 years. The Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry helped members of the Armed Forces make barriers of sandbags in Datchet, Berkshire. The Queen gave fodder for cattle. Mr Cameron visited unfortunate people in Worcestershire and Gloucestershire and threatened to leave no flooded region unvisited. Great holes opened up in Ripon and High Wycombe, Hemel Hempstead and Croxley Green. Sir Tom Finney, the Preston North End footballer, died, aged 91.

Abroad

Matteo Renzi, the mayor of Florence, who has never been elected as an MP, became prime minister of Italy. The EU suspended talks over Swiss participation in EU research and education programmes after Switzerland voted in a referendum to apply strict quotas for immigration from European Union countries. The production, import and sale of lace underwear will stop in July 2014 in Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus, under a trade agreement.

At least 25 people died in a day of protests in Kiev against the government of Ukraine, as police attacked barricades. At least four people were killed when Thai police cleared protest camps in Bangkok. MPs took part in a punch-up on the floor of the Turkish parliament after a bill was passed giving the justice minister more power. Belgium passed a bill allowing euthanasia for children of any age. Kayla Finley, 27, was jailed overnight in South Carolina when she visited a police station to complain of a stalker and it was discovered that she had not returned a video she had rented nine years earlier.

A second round of peace talks in Geneva between the Syrian government and opposition ended without progress. Brigadier General Salim Idris was replaced as leader of the Free Syrian Army by the more experienced field commander Colonel Abd al-Ilah al-Bashir. In Egypt the Islamist terrorist group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis demanded by Twitter that tourists should leave the country. In Iraq, at least 49 people were killed in a day of car-bomb attacks in Baghdad and Hilla; the day before, 23 were killed in Baghdad alone. A UN panel reported that North Koreans had suffered ‘unspeakable atrocities’. A North Korean ship seized in Panama seven months ago, with Soviet-era fighter aircraft hidden beneath sacks of sugar, was sent back to Cuba. Fighting broke out in South Sudan. In South Africa, police arrested 20 illegal gold-miners rescued after being trapped underground by rival illegal miners.          CSH