20/10/2016 Reporting Scotland

That's all from the BBC News at Six - so it's goodbye from me -

and on BBC One we now join the BBC's news teams where you are.

Two years after the country voted to stay in the UK,

proposals are published for a second independence referendum

Two years after going on the run, this violent criminal from Glasgow

Scotrail promises to improve its performance,

after admitting its service isn't good enough.

Scotland's only Labour and Conservative MPs are at risk,

under plans to redraw the country's Westminster constituencies

And the better team won, Brendan Rodgers' verdict

on a disappointing night for Celtic in the Champions League.

The Scottish Government has published a consultation

on a new independence referendum bill.

The First Minister said she'd been forced into the position

because of broken promises from Westminster and

But opposition politicians have argued that Nicola Sturgeon should

Our political correspondent Lucy Adams reports...

A macro if you think for one single second I am not serious about doing

what it takes to protect Scotland's interests, then think again. It's

not the first time the Scottish Government has launched a

referendum. That led to this but failed to get the result they

wanted. Greenock is one of the few parts of Scotland that voted with a

50-50 yes no split in the independence referendum two years

ago. But in June of this year, 64% of the electorate here voted to

remain in the EU. Today is not necessarily about securing

independence. It's just a first step and might not even lead to a bill.

In effect it's the Scottish Government's insurance policy

against a so-called hard Brexit removing Scotland from the single

market. It's important to protect Scotland's interests against a hard

right Tory Brexit that could cost up to 80,000 jobs. So we are consulting

on a draft referendum Bill. Should it prove that independence is the

best way or indeed the only way to protect Scotland's interests. But

opponents say they should get on with running the country. We

promised the people of Scotland two years ago that if they came out and

voted in the independence referendum, their voice would be

respected. The majority of people don't want independence and the SNP

should take this off the table. Experts have reflected on the legal

status of a second independence referendum. This time round the

Scottish Government says they will ask the UK Government to authorise

the referendum. That's what they did in the last referendum. However I

doubt if the UK Government would agree to that. Parts of the

waterfront in Greenock have been transformed with EU funding. Its

people living in areas like this that the Scottish Government will

need to persuade of the requirement for a second independence

referendum, and who they hope will be swayed by the UK Government's

moved to leave the EU and the impact they say that will have on trade.

Voted to stay part of Europe. I also voted to stay part of the UK. I just

think economic and I wouldn't vote to break the UK up. For me, Scotland

being part of Europe is really important and I think I would vote

accordingly for that. I would still vote for independence because I feel

that Scotland did not vote to leave the EU market. The bill would have

the support it needs to be passed, but questions remain as to whether

it will get that far. A man has gone on trial

at the Old Bailey for the murder in London

of an Inverness-born policeman. Stefano Brizzi denies murdering 59

year-old Gordon Semple, saying his death was an accident

resulting from a "sex The Scot had been with

the Metropolitan Police Earlier I caught up with our

reporter Richard Lister. Richard, what happened in court

today? Well, opening the prosecution case today Certainly for the past

few hours we had a lot of gruesome detail about this killing. He came

to the UK from Italy in 2011. But the jury heard that he was in

contact with PC Gordon Semple, originally from Inverness, but a 30

year veteran of the Metropolitan Police force. He used a gay dating

app, they arranged a meeting and Mr Semple spent several hours at the

flat. The jury heard he was almost certainly killed between 7:30pm and

10pm. His body was not discovered for a week until a neighbour called

police complaining about the smell coming from the flat. Lease officers

attended the flat and when they were met at the door by Mr Brizzi, the

court heard he had said he tried to dissolve the body. He said Satan

told him to. There were emotional scenes in court when the jury was

played CCTV footage of Mr Brizzi buying power tools and buckets and

cleaning fluid from a shop near his house as Mr Semple lay dead in his

flat. Mr Brizzi burst into loud sobs and eventually the afternoon session

had to be stopped and will not resume until 10am. This case is due

to last three weeks. Mr Brizzi denies murder but he has admitted to

the charge of obstructing a coroner by trying to conceal Mr Semple's

body. Scotrail has unveiled an action plan

detailing how it's going to tackle the problems that have plagued

the rail network over It comes the day after a petition

was handed into the government calling on the company to lose

the franchise to operate Our reporter John McManus

is at Queen Street Station for us - That petition yesterday was the

result of enormous public pressure calling on ScotRail to either

improve its performance or give up the franchise. And they have had

problems on the reliability and punctuality issues means they

dropped below a certain standard of performance, 90.3%. That is what has

triggered transport Scotland to order the company to publish this

improvement plan. It has not all been bad, there have been

significant successes over the past year for ScotRail, not least the

introduction of the new borders railway. The company admits it does

have problems. It says it will spend ?60 million over the next two years

putting those problems right, but ?60 million over the next two years

they are under a lot of political pressure. I asked the company

whether they were now involved in a PR battle with government ministers.

Absolutely not. People are expressing their frustration, that's

fine, we would not be critical of anybody doing that. For us it is

about making sure we do everything as well as we possibly can to make

sure we provide our customers with the best experience they can have on

Scotland's network as they go to their jobs and to see their family

and friends. And what do the customers or passengers make of

this? Well there's a lot of promises in this report, not least, for

example, things such as bringing on my new electric trains, upgrading

existing older rolling stock with new doors and Wi-Fi for example,

upgrading stations and spending more money on all the services they offer

to customers. But it's a big ask. For example 200 carriages over the

next three years is something ScotRail have promised. I asked

passengers at Queen Street earlier today whether they thought ScotRail

could deliver on those promises. If they put their minds to it they will

be able to but I'm not sure I can trust them. They are a bit delayed

but they are consistent. They might not be there on time but from my

but they are consistent. They might experience it's a minute or two they

are delayed by. Half an hour and the like, barely acceptable. They used

to be an old advert, let the train take the strain, I think they forgot

about that. This is an extremely frustrating issue for passengers.

People just want to get home and get to work on time. They are probably

not interested in the finer details of the improvement plan, they just

want the trains to run on time. Thank you.

Senior investigators have warned an "extremely violent" Scottish

fugitive is likely to be hiding in Spain's ex-pat community.

36-year-old Jonathon Kelly is one of 10 people who feature

on a new "most wanted" list, revealed by the National Crime

They believe each of the fugitives are hiding in Spain.

Kelly, from Glasgow, is wanted by Police Scotland

to serve a jail term for a number of serious assaults.

The violent offender is said to pose a high risk to both

Our reporter Aileen Clarke has more details.

Armed police surrounded a Glasgow tenements two years ago. Officers

poured into the Govanhill Street in a bid to capture a violent career

criminal with a string of assaults to his name, including a machete

attack. They'd been looking for Jonathan Kelly since he had gone on

the run two weeks earlier, but if he'd been here he had moved on. When

released from prison on licence one of the conditions was that he would

turn up here at his local police station every day. That lasted less

than three weeks, and then he cut his electronic tag off and went to

ground. Two years on the police have still to catch up with him. Now

detectives believe he has fled to Spain and is one of ten fugitives

the National crime agency is targeting in this latest push to

trace button 's most wanted. We are hoping people who know the

whereabouts of these fugitives get in touch through crime Scotland. We

can work in punisher with our Spanish counterparts and arrest and

extradite the fugitives. Kelly is not the only one on the list

Scottish police are keen to chase. There is a European arrest warrant

out for Marc Quinn, a 52-year-old man from Liverpool. It is believed

he was involved in a drug dealing operation in Glasgow. The

authorities hope that more raids like this will result from tip-off

is on the latest figures they are targeting. Previous campaigns have

flushed out more than 70 fugitives. Amongst them William Paterson who

fled to Spain but is now serving at least 22 years in jail for the

murder of Kevin Carroll in a supermarket car park in Glasgow six

years ago. Over the years some arrest in Spain have come just hours

after the mug shots have been publicised. Sometimes it takes days

or weeks. But detectives say they play a long game. We are very

determined, we never give up. We will keep looking for these people

for as long as it takes to capture them. In the case of such a

dangerous criminal as Jonathan Kelly, police hope their tenacity

will pay off sooner rather than later.

You're watching BBC Reporting Scotland.

Two years after the country voted to stay in the UK,

proposals are published for a second

As final preparations are made to host the Old Firm League Cup semi

final at Hampden the police say they won't tolerate any misbehaviour

Scotland's MPs have been looking at new proposals

to reduce their number and re-draw the Westminster constituencies.

It means some SNP MPs will have to fight each

other to stand again, and it puts the only

Conservative and Labour members in Scotland at risk.

The UK Government wants the change in order to cut the cost

of politics and have more equally-sized constituencies.

Our political correspondent Andrew Kerr has more.

Battle ground Glasgow in the 2020 general election. SNP MPs might have

to fight each other before polling day. Journalists have been poring

over these new proposals. The UK Government wants to cut Scottish

constituencies by six to save ?12 million over the next Parliament. We

are tossed with drawing boundaries and coming up with names of

constituencies and we would very much welcome public engagement on

each of those elements, particularly where people think there are

improvements that could be made. These multicoloured maps could leave

MP careers in tatters. There are going to be some SNP MPs who lose

out. Those particularly vulnerable are those where it is not obvious

that they have the best claim on the new seat that is being created in

their area. In the last general election the SNP won 56 out of 59

seats. In SNP health Glasgow the constituencies have been cut from

seven to six, that means a fight in the party to stand again unless

someone steps aside. Meanwhile Scotland's only Labour MP could be

at risk in the redrawn constituency has he is losing traditional areas

of support. It's the same story for the soul Conservative MPs. Areas

added into the new constituency taking a chunk of SNP support.

Finally an unusual merger, the rural Angus Glens and busy Dundee East.

The people in that area we spoke to don't mind the change as long as it

saves money. I think we've got far too much government. There Rafah too

many MPs in London, Scottish or otherwise. We don't need all these

people there. Quite right, saving money, anything to save money. But

the SNP are critical of the plan to cut MPs and deny there will be in

fighting has MPs search around for a seat. Identix so. For us what this

is about is the overall representation, this is about a

reduction in the representation of the people of Scotland, not picking

on certain areas or looking at communities. For that Labour MP in

Edinburgh who could be at risk, battle begins now. Of the seats made

and created out of the Edinburgh South seat I'd be happy to fight and

hopefully win, but there is a long way to go. We've been making some

suggestions to make it reflect local communities and local community

ties. Back in the south-west, Scotland's only conservative

welcomes a cut in politicians but he's not impressed at his boundary

changes. I support their being less MPs, I think it will make Parliament

more cost-effective and that inevitably means more boundary

changes. Obviously it is a disappointment to see a constituency

I represented for 15 years being broken up. This is just the initial

plan and it could change. MPs will have to pass it, but not until

A prisoner, who went on the run from Castle Huntley

open prison near Dundee, has been traced in Paisley.

Police said Arthur had convictions for violence and they had warned

members of the public not to approach him.

The mother of an RAF serviceman from Dunfermline,

who went missing after a night out in Suffolk, has renewed her appeal

CCTV pictures show 23 year old Corrie McKeague in the centre

of Bury St Edmonds almost four weeks ago.

Since then there have been land and air searches, but no trace

His mother says she believes he's still alive.

Honestly, so many people have asked me that question and and absolutely,

the thought that he is going to come back in weeks saying you will not

believe what's just happened to be, that is him. Nobody can just

disappear. I know that. I know that as a police officer, I know that you

just don't have any evidence and there is nothing.

A look at other stories from across the country...

Almost 50,000 people have signed up to donate stem cells in a bid to

save the life of a three-year-old girl. Eva Stark from Fife lost out

on a life-saving transplant for the second time after a donor pulled out

for medical reasons. She has a rare blood disorder and will die without

a stem cell transplant. The donor has to be a ten out of ten identical

match for genetic markers. Emergency services have been attempting to

remove two empty cars which plunged into the sea in Edinburgh. They were

spotted by Walker at West Shore wrote in granting early this

morning. Police said they did not know how they ended up here but

confirmed the body had been heart. Stagecoach bus passengers in

Scotland may be able to pay their fears using contactless technology

by next year. Ahead of some services elsewhere in Britain. In a ?12

million scheme the company made plans to introduce the equipment on

all of its UK regional bosses by the end of 2018. Political uncertainty

is being blamed for a slowdown in growth for Scottish construction

firms with modest expectations of business improvement over the next

12 months. The quarterly survey by the Royal institution of chartered

surveyors found more were expecting growth than contraction but only by

a 7% margin. An American writer has won this year 's Dundee

International Booker prize. She has been awarded ?5,000 and a publishing

deal for horror novel, the margins, a coming-of-age story set in the

1980s with a lead character who is transgender. I've always been

interested in gender and gender roles and why we have them, how they

are played out. I was looking for a book like this and I couldn't find

one and I have always had a cliche, write what you want to read so

that's what I did. Glasgow's top police officer says

the behaviour of some Celtic and Rangers fans

is an 'embarrasment' to the city and country,

and is promising more on-the-spot arrests for any serious misbehaviour

at Sunday's League Cup semifinal. Chief Superintendent Brian McInulty

is deploying extra officers, claiming the police and the public

'have had enough' . From the national stadium,

Kheredine Idessane reports. Preparations are well underway here

at the National Stadium for two big football matches this weekend,

Martin against Aberdeen on Saturday, Rangers against Celtic on Sunday, up

for grabs a place in the League Cup final and it's particularly the

match between the Glasgow teams on Sunday which is exercising the minds

of police. They are promising extra resources, additional officers here

at the National Stadium on Sunday. There will be extra searches and a

change in emphasis as well. There is going to be more arrests say police.

This comes off the back of a match last month at Celtic Park in which

effigies were hung from one part of the ground and some severe vandalism

was done to toilets in another part. It becomes an embarrassment for

Scottish football fans, it becomes an embarrassment for Scottish

people. We should be talking after a football match about the game. We

should not be talking about these senseless act by a minority of

people who tarnish the event for everybody else. For that reason we

will be focused on doing everything we can to prevent it from happening

in the first place. If people do engage in that type of behaviour we

will be looking to make arrests this weekend. There is possibly a more

controversial Rangers and Celtic match later in the year at Hogmanay,

controversial Rangers and Celtic will the template be said that this

weekend, are you happy for that match to go ahead on that day? The

fixture is being held at Ibrox, Rangers home ground, which is a

different environment to the National Stadium but again we will

learn from every game but the focus at the moment is absolutely on the

two games this coming weekend. The last big club match held here at

Hampden Park was the cup final involving Hibernian and Rangers and

we saw the disgraceful scenes afterwards with bands on the pitch

behind me and the subsequent enquiry into the going on and the failings.

Police say they have learned and are continuing to learn lessons from

that match and they will put procedures in place here at Hampden

on Sunday to try to best preserve public order and make sure the

majority of fans come here and enjoy the football in safety.

The Celtic captain Scott Brown says beating Rangers in the semi final

of the League Cup this weekend could provide the perfect tonic

after their Champions League defeat last night.

Borussia Monchengladbach were two nil winners at Parkhead.

Brown says attention must now turn to their rivals but he's warning

fans to be realistic about the scoreline.

Here's our Senior Football reporter Chris McLaughlin.

Footballers rarely get a chance to let Champions League wins these

days, dust yourself down captain, forget last night and promote a

League Cup semifinal. But is it that easy? It looked and sounded like the

start of another memorable Champions League night at Celtic Park but it

didn't last. From the Germans pushed, pressed, fought and fought

and silenced and then scored with a little help from Kolo Toure. It's

football, it's about how you bounce back and he's a great leader from

the back, he talks and communicates and always wants the ball. I think

that the statue of a great man and what he's done for us since coming

in here has been phenomenal and he will push on as well. If he is to

push on he will have two key mistakes to forget, this was the

second last night, the goal which finished it for Celtic. Toure's

indecision. All in all night to forget for the Scottish champions. I

think the best team won, I don't think there's any argument about

that. My players gave absolutely everything tonight, we were up

against a top side. But we had some good spells as well. We were just

beaten by a side that was very, very good. Celtic win could have had them

pushing per second, now they look cut adrift at the bottom. Perhaps

putting Rangers to the sword on Sunday would help it will be a lot

tighter, everyone thinks it will be three, four, 5-0 for us again but it

would be that, it'll be a lot harder again. Yet again we got the pace and

quality, we can score a couple. Focus, promotional push over on

Sunday, it will be back to business. Let's get details of Scotland 2016.

The draft bill has been published but are we any closer to the second

independence referendum? I will be talking to the Scottish Government

Brexit minister fresh from his visit to Brussels.

Lets see how the weather is shaping up.

Asset obey across the bus majority of the country and on reflection if

you had the sunshine it was quite pleasant. Little in the way of

change tonight, driver most, settled again thanks to this high-pressure

overhead, but this weather front trying to edging towards the Western

Isles and some showery outbreaks of rain across Orkney and then east

coast but for most of the mainland most of the night it's dry. Fairly

cloudy and it will be cool but not perhaps as cold as last night. In

towns and cities we are looking at temperatures around about six or

seven, in the countryside coaster three or four. A touch of frost and

a few mist patches in the Highlands. Tomorrow we still have that ridge of

high pressure connected to the high cell just passed Scandinavia, the

weather front into the Northwest so damp start in towards the Hebrides

and showery rain affected east of Aberdeen and down towards Edinburgh

and the Eastern Borders but that cleaving through. The wet weather in

the north-west clearing away also but for most of the country for most

of the day it's another dry and settled one. Cloud late but some

brightness coming through. Highs around 12, it's not too bad. One or

two residual showers around the coast but should be a dry afternoon

compared with the morning, still a bit damp across the north-west but

again that should be clearing away. As we head through the course of the

rest of the afternoon into the evening still a bit damp across the

vast North. To the weekend the settled theme continues, and

east-west split. The East cloudy with showers, West likely to be

drier with sunshine because we have an East south-easterly wind coming

over the North Sea and picking up moisture, more likely to see cloud

in the East with showers further west, likely to be drier and

brighter with the sunshine. All told fairly settled, best of the sunshine

in the West. A reminder of the main news, the

Scottish Government has published a consultation on a new independence

referendum bill. The First Minister says she's been forced into the

decision because of broken promises from Westminster and the Brexit

vote. The opposition say she should get on with running the country.

That's Reporting Scotland, I will be back with the headlines at 8pm and

the late bulletin just after the ten o'clock News. Until then from

everyone and the team right across the country have good evening.

Goodbye.