23/02/2017 Reporting Scotland

Tonight, on Reporting Scotland: Fears that elite athletes could lose

out as the BBC learns that Scottish sport is facing a 20

Snow, rain and high winds bring travel disruption

across the country, as Storm Doris causes power cuts

The lorries are at a standstill, so they have much in common with a lot

of commuters in Scotland this morning, who are going nowhere fast

in the snow. pressure over its investments

with an oil giant. The sister of Moira Anderson,

who disappeared 60 years ago, reveals she was molested by the man

suspected of killing the schoolgirl. And two years after he thought his

international rugby career was over, John Barclay is named Scotland

captain for the game against Wales. funding cut over a three-year

period, a move being described The country's sport agency

have yet to decide where the cuts will fall,

but there's concern elite The Government says that reducing

health inequalities is their current priority.

Lynsey Sharp might just get their - is a medal for Scotland. Lynsey

Sharp, against the odds, winning silver. Organisers and politicians

promised a legacy, that sport would have the ability to build on its

success. But since then, funding to Sport Scotland has fallen. First of

all, here is how it is funded. Around 60% is made up from the

Scottish Government, with lottery sales making up the rest. In the

year ending 2015, total revenue was ?65.1 million, that is divided up

amongst 52 spot. By the end of next year, that figure will have fallen

to around 51.8 million pounds. That is a cut to the budget of over 20%

in just three years. The man in charge of awarding the cash to the

sports says there are tough decisions ahead. It is heartbreaking

to me, because I just know the effort that the governing bodies and

the community around, the volunteers, mums and dads, have put

into this, so to have to say that we are having to cut money back is, I

believe, not the right way to go. One-way Scottish athletes are going

is down under. Their funding is more or less secure for the Commonwealth

Games in Australia's Gold Coast next year. Beyond that... For me, I think

this will have a huge impact across year. Beyond that... For me, I think

the board. In future, it means Scotland will be playing catch up

now. It is almost impossible to catch up if you fall too far behind

the leading nations. The agency responded, saying: -- the Government

responded, saying: This was Laura Muir recently,

breaking records in the 1000 metres, and perhaps proving why the current

system had been working. But in terms of the Government cuts...

Clearly, it's not a priority and they don't value the role of sport

within the Scottish community. And they need to address that, and we

need to look at funding and how other countries are increasing their

funding and support for sport. other countries are increasing their

pain is real, but the cause is not entirely political. Lottery cash is

drying up, and sport Scotland hope that the medals don't follow. Chris

McLaughlin, Reporting Scotland. Snow and high winds caused

by Storm Doris have led to travel disruption,

power cuts and school closures. Cross-border trains and planes

are still affected. The M80 was closed for a time this

morning in both directions, after heavy snow led

to treacherous driving conditions. The M80, a difficult drive this

morning in the snow, then add in a lorry or two jackknife, and the

result was gridlock. Daily commutes turned into 3.5 hours long drives.

It has taken me, to go five miles, 4.5 hours. I got caught at

Bonnybridge and I was stuck there for just under 2.5 hours. Right

through Cumbernauld, absolute mayhem, a standstill in Cumbernauld.

The road reopened around 11am, but the chance of snow had been

predicted by the Met office in a revised weather warning last night.

We had 130 gritters out on the M80 last night, and we have salt stocks

at high levels, so plenty of preparation. An unpleasant journey,

of course, for those on the M80 this morning. I never liked to see

disruption on the transport network. In South Lanarkshire, traffic was

trying to make it up two shots on the M8, but at least here a gritter

has got through. Some traffic is managed it -- is managing to get

down this way, but the conditions are dreadful. It had to be expected.

They said it would snow, and it is. I have come from five miles that

way, sat here for two hours, trying to get to a meeting in Edinburgh.

I'm just going home. It was hard going for gritters too. Near

Balfron, this one ended up in a ditch. School buses were cancelled

in some places, but roads stayed open. In Aberdeenshire, a few

schools were shut, along with a few in Stirlingshire and one in

Auchterarder. For the M80, the usual advice for drivers to stay in their

vehicles could not contain this one. The captain of Falkirk Football Club

was determined not to miss out on training. David the cracking braved

the elements to work those muscles, even using the standstill to show

off a few squats. And Aline is back at the M80 against

for us tonight. It looks clear. And you don't even need your hat. What

are the conditions like? Well, the traffic is moving very well here

tonight. What a difference a few hours makes. And you are right - it

is not nearly as cold as it was this morning. I don't even have gloves

on. This morning, I thought my fingers would fall off. The

temperature was very cold. Even on some parts of the motorway network

tonight, it is thought to be a bit lighter on traffic then it usually

was, and that may is because so many people try to get into work this

morning and gave up and went home. When you think about the grandmother

in Kilsyth who should only have had to drip the like -- had to drive

five minutes, she had got nowhere near her daughter after trying for a

long time. Conditions much better this evening. Some disruption on the

trains across the border. That is because of what Storm Doris has done

down south. A bit of signalling failure between Haymarket and

Linlithgow here, but apart from that, I think it is fair to say that

people are getting home tonight in short order than they got to work

this morning. The First Minister has said

that she would "reflect further" on whether Scotland should introduce

whole-life sentences She was replying to a question

from the Conservative leader Ruth Davidson,

who raised the 23-year sentence given to the killer

of the schoolgirl Paige Doherty. Our reporter Catriona Renton

is here and can tell us more. Just remind us of the background to

this. Paige Doherty was murdered in March last year. John left them

admitted stabbing her to death in Clydebank. Under Scots law, life

sentences must be given for murder, but a judge must also give the

minimum length of time they will spend in prison before being able to

apply for parole. In John left them's case, he was given a minimum

apply for parole. In John left term of 27 years, but Appeal Court

judges last week reduced that to 23 years, which has led for calls for

the courts to be able to pass life sentences which mean life. These

exist in England, and it came up First Minister's Questions today.

Our judges do not have the tool of a whole life

tariff at their disposal, and we say they should. We can wring our hands

and express outrage every time something like this happens, all we

can do something about it. I want to do something about it. If the

Scottish Government won't act, I can say today that the Scottish

Conservatives will, by pushing ahead with a bill making a case for the

introduction of whole life sentencing in Scotland. I give a

commitment today that the Government will continue to reflect about what

further changes we might think appropriate, and that Parliament

should act in the way it thinks best, in light of all the

circumstances. Why don't we have the option of whole life sentences? A

leading human rights lawyer we've spoken to has indicated that if a

judge in Scotland were to get a whole lifetime, the Appeal Court has

suggested it would not necessarily strike it down or oppose it. That

has yet to be tested. Judges have given minimum terms, which would

mean that an offender would not be released in their lifetime. The

longest punishment was given for the Wallsend murderer, who was given 37

years of a sentence. He would have been 106 before being released. A

whole lifetime was given recently to Thomas Mair, who kill BMP Jo Cox.

The Budget Bill has just completed its passage through Parliament.

The Government's ?31 billion package of tax and spending plans

after the SNP secured the support of the Greens.

So, the deal between SNP and the Greens stuck? He said -- yes. It was

said that it would bring additional infrastructure spending and would

protect key services. Labour and the Lib Dems call that timid. The Tories

said it would leave Scotland as the most highly taxed part of the UK.

You may have remembered that the Tory said of the Greens that they

were lentil munching, sandal wearing watermelons. Patrick Harvey wore it

as a badge of pride today. You can perhaps see it as a watermelon upon

it. Mr Harvey was making the point that while the budget was not

perfect, he believed it brought additional investment and was proud

of it. The minister had some comments about council budgets. Yes,

he drew attention to the fact that there had been lots of complaints

about money going from central Government and local and mention

that a number of Labour councils -- and mentioned that a number of those

councils were Labour run. Labour are saying it is up to individual

councils. They say it is right for them to make their own decision, but

they say part of the explanation will be that they believe the

council tax is regressive, not a good tax. Another part of the

expedition will be that there are local elections in May.

The animal charity, the SSPCA, is facing calls to sell the shares

Campaigners say the charity should not hold shares in a business

The SSPCA says it hasn't bought any shares in Shell

for more than 12 years, and most of them had been

Here's our business correspondent David Henderson.

It is Scotland's largest animal welfare charity. The SS PCA has a

network of centres like this, all funded through donations, but are

the investments it holds true to its values? The charity owns shares in

the oil giant Shell, a company which conducts experiments on animals, and

that shareholding is substantial, worth more than ?600,000. Other

charity campaigners have told us that that is a mistake. It is a

stupid situation for them to get into. They are a very wealthy

organisation with people who are there to deal with funds and

investments, and they should have been ethically investing for

decades. They have known about this for 12 years but don't seem to have

done much about it. In recent years, Shell has been heavily involved in

animal testing. The latest figures, for 2015, show that more than

100,000 animals were experimented on, most of them fish, but some

amphibians, rodents and rabbits. Shell say they are committed to

eliminating animal testing where possible, but the number of animals

involved has more than doubled in five years. Shell has also been

fined for an oil leak in the North Sea which put birdlife at risk. So,

why would the SSPCA want to hang onto the shares? Shell is an

attractive income producer. Its return is around 6.5% per annum, it

has extremely good cash flow, meaning its ability to continue to

pay that dividend is it strangely strong. The SSPCA claims most of the

shares it owns in Shell were donated by members of the public, but it

also admits that it bought shares in the oil giant back in 2005.

Charities like this campaign group says it is impossible to hold

investments in line with their values. If we were given a share in

Shell, it would not be consistent with our investment policy, so we

would have to either politely turn that give down, or liquidate it and

put it into a better place. In a statement, the SSPCA told us: The

charity declined our request for an interview be told us and plans to

review its investments in the coming weeks. David Henderson, Reporting

Scotland. the Coatbridge schoolgirl

Moira Anderson disappeared. Today in the Lanarkshire town

there was a service to remember her. Our reporter Suzanne Allan

has been speaking to For the first time, she has been

talking about how the man suspected of killing her sister molested her

too. An emotional reunion for Moira

Anderson's sister, she lives in Australia and is home for today's

anniversary. The service was short, simple, symbolic. Today was also a

celebration of Moira's short-lived. Moira was happy-go-lucky, she had a

job in the local dairy, she used to deliver milk, and at the end of the

week she would get pocket money. Full of fun, a tomboy, she had to be

outdoors. Moira left her grandmother's house to buy margarine

from a local shop. She boarded a bus trip and by Alexander Gartshore, a

man later convicted of abusing a young girl. Her family never saw

Moira again. Our innocent childhood days were gone, absolutely, and my

parents were overly protective, and I do believe the whole community,

the parents changed after that, you know, they were very careful. There

have been countless appeals and searches to find the 11-year-old.

Three years ago, the Crown Office said, had he been alive, they would

have charged Alexander Gartshore with her murder. Today Janet told me

he had molested her beside his car. I felt quite secure, because it was

daylight, nice area. And he told me to hold his dipstick, and and he

went and an, and I ran, jotting down the registration number. This

assault happened two years after Moira disappeared. It may have been

six decades ago, but police haven't given up. In next few weeks, the

search to this this canal just outside Coatbridge. Specialist teams

in boats will use ground penetrating radar and sonar to try to find the

body of Moira Anderson. The little girl who never came home.

Passengers on a flight from Edinburgh to Amsterdam have

been evacuated after the plane's landing gear collapsed

Andrew Black is in our Edinburgh studio and can tell us more.

This was a normal scheduled flight from Amsterdam operated by Flybe,

and the problems began when the plane decided to land at Schiphol

airport, the landing gear failed, and it was all captured in some

ready dramatic social media footage. You are now about to see images of

what happened, as well as the pilots talking in the aftermath of the

incident. Mayday, Mayday, broken landing gear. Roger, copy, Roger May

Day. Mayday, evacuating from the cabin on

the runway. The Fire Brigade is on the way. Footage there from the

plane landing at Schiphol airport, everybody unharmed.

The Director-General of the BBC says the corporation's

new TV channel for Scotland is a "statement of intent".

Tony Hall appeared before Holyrood's Culture Committee this

morning, following the announcement that the new channel, which includes

a nine o'clock news hour, will begin broadcasting next autumn.

The 30 million we are talking about is, in crude terms, cash to spend on

the channel. You know, if you look at the BBC for comparison, there are

other things we lay into it, which are not for content. This is

absolutely cash for content. And 60% of the output will be new

commissions, which I think is a really very good start.

But what of the rest of the news media,

and the competition for readers, viewers and listeners?

Newspaper print circulation figures today show fewer of us

Here's our business and economy editor, Douglas Fraser.

All the news that is fit to print, but Scottish newspapers are not in

that fit a condition, not in print at least. Among the four main city

papers, sales of the Courier and the Press and Journal were down almost

10%. Most are picking up some readers

online, but one title that is bucking the trend on print sales, as

well as online, is the Times. Rather than giving a copy away for nothing,

we think people should pay for it, and that has been borne out in our

figures, where we show year-on-year growth in additional subscriptions.

You need that money to pay for the journalism, and if you get that

revenue, that will be borne out in the quality of the product you

produce, and year-on-year we are growing subscribers both digitally

and in print. The internet has given the opportunity to set up new news

ventures. This one looks to the opportunity to set up new news

sponsorship and advertising, but as the BBC expands its journalism

reach, it is tough going. The BBC website is the daddy of them all,

but it has got what seems like endless resources, I am sure the BBC

would argue otherwise, but it seems to be able to produce anything

online, comprehensively macro, which is very difficult for the

opposition. The big thing for us is that we have to make money, and the

BBC doesn't. That is a huge issue for everybody in the industry. STV

competes for viewers, but not for funding, and it is launching a

channel as well, on screen in the next few months. It is very

flattering, because it is a very similar pattern to that announced by

STV. We are launching our own channel later on this year, we will

have our own integrated news service, which will be at seven

o'clock, a combination of Scottish, UK and international news, and we

see a demand for that, and we see and also being met by what the BBC

has announced. But the way that we get our news is changing, and

rapidly, for young people. The idea get our news is changing, and

of live, edited evening news is being replaced by news where you

want it with the format and priority that you choose. Douglas Fraser,

Reporting Scotland, at STV News. Two years ago, he was left out

of Scotland's World Cup squad. Now he'll captain the team

at Murrayfield for their Six Nations match

against Wales on Saturday. John Barclay takes over

from Greg Laidlaw who'll miss the rest of the

tournament through in jury. As David Currie reports,

the Scotland head coach says Barclay deserves credit for fighting

his way back to the top. The Scottish sex, or rather lack of

it, was big news yesterday. -- six. The man who will wear the number six

jersey against Wales is the new Scotland captain. It is a huge

honour for me, there is a group of guys who have been working together

since he has been in charge, and before that, to make my job easier

as captain. John Barclay breakthrough! It comes to him

naturally, so he doesn't have to force and self as a captain, it

comes naturally, he is respected by the players. We could call John

Barclay Captain Scarlet, because he plays for the Scarlets in Wales, but

comeback kid might be more appropriate. He won the first of his

57 caps ten years ago against New Zealand but spend a couple of years

in the international wilderness and was not chosen for the 2015 World

Cup. Great for him to force his way back in, now he is going to run out

as captain of the team against Wales, where he is playing his club

rugby. What a bit of timing! The story of my comeback, or how ever

you want to say it, is very much what I can provide now as captain,

and as a player. There is news concerning the Scottish number 92,

the scrum-half jersey will be sported by Price, who took over from

Laidlaw in Paris. The Scots haven't been Wales in ten years. Whatever

part Scotland's number six and number nine play on Saturday, a

Scotland win will make headlines across Britain.

Here are Shereen and Glenn with the details.

How gay friendly is the army? One serving soldier tells us why the

rainbow flag will be flying about Scottish barracks tomorrow.

Methadone Mick and Fred Macauley in a culture clash over their home

towns, we will explain why. And the killed yoga boys are on live.

In the meantime, Chris has the weather.

Amongst all that disruption from Storm Doris, a moment of calm, a

walk to school in the snow, thank you very much indeed to all the

Weather Watchers for sending in pictures. Doris is well and truly on

the way out, moving quite apace, 100 mph, over Poland by midnight

tonight. Behind it, cold conditions, icy conditions. A Met Office

yellowed bee aware warning in force overnight and into tomorrow. This is

how things look tonight, generally dry, clear conditions, cold

conditions, temperatures in towns and cities around zero down to minus

two, but minus it is possible in the coldest glens. Friday dawns rather

chilly, icy in places, one or two showers around, but for many a dry

and bright morning with some sunshine, but change is afoot.

Through the afternoon, cloud bills, you can see the rain arrives. By

mid-afternoon, for most of us, largely dry, but properly cloudier

than the morning. Brighter skies towards the borders, the Lothians,

Fife, Angus and Aberdeenshire, in the West, pretty wet with a

strengthening southerly wind. Despite the sunnier skies across the

far north, the Northern Isles and the north-east, quite chilly, 3-5 C.

The rest of the afternoon and evening, rain falling as snow, then

back to rain, a wet and breezy night. Certainly looking ahead to

the weekend, wet and windy sums up Saturday fairly well, I'm afraid.

But not only wet and windy, quite mild. Saturday gets off to a soggy

start, but the afternoon hopefully try and brighter. But look at those

temperatures, up to 12 Celsius. Sunday, another spell of rain

working its way in from the Atlantic, drying up and brightening

up across the north-west, but it will be turning colder. That is the

forecast. I'll be back with the headlines

at eight, and the late bulletin just

after the ten o'clock news. Until then,

from everyone on the team, right across the country,

have a very good evening. Educating the mass of a population -

that is a wonderful ideal. see how the life of the Scottish

child has changed