20/10/2016 Reporting Scotland

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.

If you think for one single second that I am not serious about doing

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

It is not the first time the Scottish Government has launched

But failed to get the result they wanted.

Greenock, it is one of the few parts of Scotland that voted

with the 50-50 yes-no split in the independence

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

Today is not necessarily about securing independence,

it is just a first step and might not even lead to a bill.

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

against a so-called hard Brexit and removing Scotland

Well, it is 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

But opponents have said they should get on with running the country.

They promised the people of Scotland that two years ago,

if they came out and voted in the independence referendum,

that their voice would be respected - this is not the respect that

The majority of people in Scotland do not want another referendum,

the majority of people in Scotland do not want independence and the SNP

Experts have reflected on the legal status

This time around, the Scottish Government has said that it will ask

the UK Government to make an order under section 30 of the Scotland Act

to authorise the referendum, that is what they did

However, I doubt if the UK Government would agree to that.

Parts of the waterfront in Greenock have been transformed

It is 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 move to leave the EU and the impact they say

Well, I voted to stay part of Europe, but I also voted

I just think economically I would not vote to break the UK up.

For me, Scotland being part of Europe is really important

You know, I would vote accordingly for that.

I would still vote for independence because I feel that Scotland did not

The bill would have the support it needs to be passed,

but questions remain as to whether it will get that far.

Lucy Adams, Reporting Scotland, Greenock.

ScotRail has unveiled an action plan, detailing how it's

going to tackle the problems that have plagued the rail network

It comes the day after a petition was handed into the Government,

calling on the company to lose the franchise to operate

Well, that petition yesterday was the result of enormous public

pressure calling on Scotland to either improve its performance

or give up the franchise, and they have had problems -

reality and punctuality issues meaning that they have dropped below

a certain standard of performance, that is 90.3% and that is what has

triggered Transport Scotland to order the company to publish

It has not been all bad because there have been significant

successes over the past year for ScotRail, not

least the introduction of the new Borders railway.

But the company admits it does have problems and has said it will spend

?16 million over the next two years putting those problems right.

But they are under a lot of political pressure and I asked

the company earlier today whether they were now

involved in a PR battle with government ministers.

People are expressing their frustration and that is fine,

we would not be critical of anyone for doing that.

But for us, it is just about how do we make sure that we do everything

as well as we possibly can to make sure that we provide our customers,

at the end of the day, with the best experience

that they can have on Scotland's network as they go to their jobs,

go and see their family and their friends?

Well, there is a lot of promises in this report, not least,

for example, things such as bringing online new electric trains

and upgrading existing older rolling stock with new doors

Upgrading stations and spending more money on all of the services

For example, 200 carriages over the next two years.

Senior investigators have warned that an "extremely violent" Scottish

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

36-year-old Jonathon Kelly is one of ten people featuring

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

Kelly, from Glasgow, absconded after being released

Our reporter Aileen Clarke has more details.

Armed police surrounding 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

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

on the run almost two weeks earlier, but if he'd been here,

When Kelly was released from prison on licence in August 2014,

one of the conditions was that he would turn up

here at his local police station in Drumchapel every day.

That lasted less than three weeks, and then he cut his electronic tag

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

We are hoping people who know the whereabouts of some

of these fugitives get in touch through Crimestoppers.

We can then get in touch with our Spanish counterparts and arrest

Kelly is not the only one on the list Scottish

There is a European Arrest Warrant out for Mark Quinn,

It is believed he was involved in a multi-million pounds drug

The authorities hope that more raids like these will result from tip-offs

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 this supermarket car park in Glasgow six years ago.

Over the years, some arrests in Spain have come just

hours after the mug shots have been publicised.

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

In the case of such a dangerous criminal as Jonathon Kelly,

police hope their tenacity will pay off sooner rather than later.

Glasgow's top police officer says the behaviour of some

Celtic and Rangers fans is an "embarrasment"

to the city and the country, and he's 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 sent this report.

Preparations are well underway here at the national stadium for two

big football matches this weekend - Morton 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

They are promising extra resources, additional officers here

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 acts 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

There is possibly a more controversial Rangers and Celtic

match later in the year at Hogmanay, will the template be

set for that this weekend, are you happy for that match

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 fans on the pitch behind me

and the subsequent enquiry into the goings 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.

Let us get the weather outlook for tonight and tomorrow from

Christopher. Thank you, Sally. Dry and settled

conditions. A lovely sunset earlier that was taken by one of our Weather

Watchers in the dross. That was overlooking the Isle of Arran. For

many, it is a dry start on Friday. Here are the temperatures at a tall

are light. A little bit of showery. are light. A little bit of showery.

-- Ardrossan. That should clear. Similar for the North West. Through

the Central Highlands could be quite a chilly start to the day with

temperatures not for freezing but they should recover. One or two

showers across the Northern Isles. Through the course of Friday, that

wet weather will clear and for most of the mainland and most of the day

it is dry and bright, much like today but fairly cloudy. Across the

UK as a will be still have that area of low pressure across the new

continent and that will feed in showers across parts of

Lincolnshire, East Anglia and down towards Ken. Brighter in the West,

some fog for the South. Elsewhere, bright and pleasant. Temperatures

around 11 or 12 Celsius. Light winds but freshening for a time. For the

weekend at a fairly busy synoptic chart but not really affecting us

too much. Pressure to the South and low pressure to the East. The rain

away from us but we need to look at the wind direction because if we

zoom in and you can see it as coming from the East. Picking up some

moisture and that will mean a cloudy weekend across the Eastern parts of

the country. The further West that you are, the brighter it will be.

We'll be have the cloud, one or two showers but they will still be some

brightness. Temperatures around 12, 13 Celsius. Similar story for

Sunday. And East West split. The best of the sunshine in the West,

light winds and temperatures are around 11 or 12 Celsius for most.

That is the forecast for now. Thank you for that, Christopher.