30/12/2011 Reporting Scotland

And good evening. The first minister has said in his new year

message that he is confident Scots will vote for independence in the

referendum to be held later in the parliamentary session. But the

Secretary of State Michael Mueller says he is confident that Scots

will make what he described as the right choice.

This has been a remarkable year for the SNP. At the Scottish elections

in May, it became the first party ever to win an outright majority at

Holyrood. A looking forward, the first minister delivered his New

Year message from the National Museum of Scotland. You can find

the James Watt steam engine, the Alexander Fleming Nobel Prize for

discovering penicillin. You can find John Logie Baird's colour

television from the 1930s. These great Scots scientists and

inventors made the breakthrough is that shaped the modern world.

of those great men, James Watt and John Logie Baird, had very close

links here with Glasgow University. The first minister says there is a

generation of people now working in Scotland's universities, colleges

and scientific institutions in areas like medicine, renewables and

environmental initiatives, who can once again makes on the land of

invention. Alex Salmon says 2012 will herald a shift in the debate

over Scotland's future. As we move closer to a referendum on

independence in the second half of the parliament, I am confident that

Scotland will decide to take full control of its own destiny. In his

new year message, the Scottish Secretary Michael Moore says he

will fight hard for Scotland's continuing place in the UK. The

Scottish Labour leader has challenged Alex Salmond to make

2012 be a year of the referendum. She says waiting to name a day for

a vote on independence is holding Scotland back.

The funeral of a teenager murdered last month has taken place on South

Uist. Hundreds of mourners crammed into St Peter's Catholic Church in

Daliburgh to pay their respects to 16-year-old Liam Aitchison, whose

body was found in a derelict building on Lewis. He was the first

person to be murdered in the Western Isles for more than 40

years. Two men have been charged. A man has been arrested in

connection with the death of 21- year-old Stephen Pollock, he will

strut and a house in Paisley last week. A firearm was later

discovered on a railway embankment. -- who was shot in a house.

Edinburgh's Hogmanay celebrations are about to get under way. The

celebrations will culminate in the traditional street party and

fireworks tomorrow night. Our correspondent is there now. What is

the atmosphere like? A great sense of anticipation here.

But parade should be getting under way in about 10 minutes. You can't

quite see anything yet but 6,500 people are set to march through the

streets of the capital city bearing flaming torches. Tonight is just

the curtain-raiser to tomorrow, the magnificent spectacle when 80,000

people will be bringing in the New Year. Not an austerity Hogmanay in

Edinburgh but what about elsewhere? One big change this year is that

there is no big event in George Square in Glasgow tomorrow night to

bring in the media. That was a financial decision by Glasgow City

Council which, like every authority in Scotland, is looking carefully

at all aspects of its spending. They have been questions about just

how good the party in George Square really was but it is important to

stress there will be plenty of other events taking place in George

Square to welcome in the new year, but has no big event in Midnight --

at midnight. When it opened 172 years ago, it

was known as the Crichton Institution for Lunatics. But after

a long and distinguished history, the last patients of the Crichton

Hospital, as it is now known, were transferred to a new facility in

Dumfries. Here we have a portrait of Mrs

Elizabeth Crichton, the greatest benefactor to psychiatry that this

country has ever known. Elizabeth Crichton had both wealth and vision.

Her late husband's fortune, are worth about �50 million into day's

country, was used by her to build a Centre for Mental Health. She

appointed a visionary, Dr William Brown. He pioneered specialist

training, six years before Florence Nightingale. Patients were

prescribed fresh air and exercise. The vast landscape grounds were for

work and play. At its height, there were 1,300 patients, many from top

families, who paid handsomely to be here. The upper crust of society,

coming from all corners of the United Kingdom - and even from

abroad - because this was an attractive place. They were away

from where they were known and they were given peace to help them get

back to proper health. Over the past 15 years, the Crichton

Hospital has largely been reinvented as a university campus

and business park. The only a handful of psychiatric patients

remain and they are about to relocate to this new hospital near

by. Hospital care of the asylum type is very historical. The

Crichton was built to be an asylum. It did a great job and a relatively

good job of providing modern care but it kills not fit for purpose

like this new building is. contrast between the brightly

painted a new hospital and the traditional Crichton could not be

greater. But a basic ethos prevails. Elizabeth Crichton's all lunatic

asylum may have had its day but her legacy survives.

A 17-year-old youth football has been arrested over sectarian

comments he allegedly made about Rangers fans after Wednesday's Old

Firm clash at Celtic Park. Michael puts Levin, who plays for

Cowdenbeath, posted the Commons on twitter. -- Michael Fleming.

The Swedish defender Mikael Lustig has been signed on a three-year

contract from Norwegian side Rosenborg. He says he will need to

recover from the figures of the Swedish season which finished last

The weather has been miserable. Well it carry on?

It was miserable today and we even had some hailstones. There were

even snow reports at low levels. As we go through the night, that rain

will continue its journey northwards. The snow will turn to

rain and any snow will quickly thought. The milder air starts to

push him with bits of rain around. The temperatures are improving from

the South West as we go through the night. Tomorrow morning, rather

cloudy and damp. The best of any brightness will be across the east

of the country. The rain clouds will get across the West End get

heavier throughout the day. The notable feature is the temperatures.

Very mild for the time of year. Temperatures rising across the far

north and the North East. If you fancy a Hogmanay hike, it looks

like Western Rangers will have a lot of rain around. 50 mph average

wind speed across the north-west. We could see gusts of 70 mph at

times. Across the East, more in the way of brightness. And a touch

milder as well. For the rest of Hogmanay evening, the rain will

move its way eastwards, leaving a scattering of showers behind. As we

go into Hogmanay evening, close to the Belles, expect a few blustery

showers. Don't be fooled by the mild day. It will turn cooler in

the night-time so don't go out without your coat and umbrella. A

chilly made for New Year's Day. We will start to see showers which

will increasingly turn wintry. -- should be note. The best of the