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Cadbury top of the chocs By LAUREN WALKER
As the Easter eggs are rolling onto the shelves, the classic Cadbury’s Dairy Milk has been named Merseyside’s most popular chocolate bar, putting Galaxy into second place and with Snickers, Ferrero Rocher and Caramac making the top five. Dairy Milk, which rolled off Cadbury’s production line in 1905, led the field, maybe not a surprising result, given that Brits go through 16 million of them a day The survey, conducted by money-saving site Voucherbox questioned Brits on their love for chocolate. Shane Forster, Voucherbox UK Country Manager commented: “The British consumer’s relationship with chocolate is clearly not to be messed with. “It seems the British public are happiest with the classic chocolate bar, which has been around for over 100 years.” The survey found that one in four people in Merseyside are spending approximately £219 a year on chocolate as they get their daily fix. Yet 41% of those surveyed are not aware of how much they are spending and almost half of respondents (48%) say that the cost would not make them change their choice anyway.
The full results: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Dairy Milk Galaxy Snickers Ferrero Rocher Caramac Caramel Maltesers Aero Peanut M&Ms Cadbury Fruit & Nut
Empire date for star Sam By LAUREN WALKER
From the back of her portrayal of Mama Morton in the critically acclaimed musical Chicago, X Factor winner Sam Bailey returns to the stage with her very own live show. She will be coming at he Liverpool Empire Theatre on Thursday March 23 and tickets are still on sale. The Sing My Heart Out tour is set to coincide with the release of her new album “Sing My Heart Out”, which is guaranteed to highlight the former prison-officer’s powerhouse vocals.
Modern police face double pressures
By CAI GRIFFITHSSTURGE
Modern policing is facing the double challenge of austerity on one side and changing demand for services on the other, with the two elements in danger of colliding. That was the view of Chief Constable of Lancashire Steve Finnigan CBE QPM, one of Britain’s most senior police officers, on his visit to LJMU to give a lecture on The Changing Nature of Demand – What is it the police do today, and what should they be doing. The lecture was organised by the Liverpool Centre for Advanced Policing Studies at Liverpool John Moores University. The event was introduced by Sir Jon Murphy QPM, who was Chief Con Finnigan’s predecessor at the Lancashire force. He spoke warmly in his introduction about their experiences working together as young officers and praised Chief Con Finnigan’s “stellar police career”. The Queen’s Police Medal recipient, who joined Merseyside Police in 1976, then took to the podium to tell the Redmonds Building audience
EDUCATING: Steve Finnigan CBE QPM lecturing students © Gareth Jones about how less visible and must adapt in order to deal higher risk crimes are now with modern crimes such as stretching police services cyber-crime, child pornogramore than traditional crime. phy and terrorism. He said: “Cyber-crime has He detailed how police forces
Scottie Writers to launch book By LEWIS JENNINGS A community-based writing group from Scotland Road is planning to launch the first book to appear out of the area for approximately 40 years. Known as the Scottie Road Writers’ Workshop – or Scottie Writers – it has run since 1973 after being formed by the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Extension Studies (now the Continuing Education Department). The book will be an anthology of members’ stories from over the years. Without the group, the name of Jimmy McGovern would perhaps only be known by his family and friends. Another former member that went on to success is veteran Liverpool actor Chris Darwin, 58, who starred in Brookside, Coronation Street and Boys From The Blackstuff. Jimmy McGovern, a BAFTA-winning screenwriter, said: “I was working as a warehouseman for Marks & Spencer’s at the time when I joined, but the direction of my life changed thanks to a
great man called Mike Quirk, a builder. “Mike was doing some work on our house and I had a row with him and I think he saw some aggression in me, which he thought needed to be channelled.It made me think about my future and, looking back, it was the best turn anyone had ever done for me. “Another great man was David Evans, who launched the group with a few residents. That man brought sunshine into our lives – he helped so many people go into further education, including myself. “I’d left school at 16 and thought all the doors were closed to me, but I swear that group changed people’s lives forever.” The group was the first of its kind in the country, helping scores of working class residents develop their creative capacities. Not only do the weekly meetings at Vauxhall’s Neighbourhood Centre (VNC) cultivate people’s raw talent, but also they produce publications as well as staging plays and public readings.
evolved more than any other, whether it’s indecent images of children, fraud or harassment. Every investigation now has a digital element that will involve the interrogation of devices and financial investigations. “Due to these increasing demands, our officers and police staff must be up-skilled so that they are able to investigate incidences and crimes in the 21st century.” Police forces, alongside other public services, have faced major cuts since 2010 due to far reaching austerity policies. This has made the policing of modern demands considerably more difficult. He spoke of the serious effects cuts to police budgets have had on the Lancashire Constabulary and the wider nation, adding: “We have lost £75m from our budget since 2010. Nationally, the police budget has been cut by about £2.3 billion and we have lost about 46,000 people, which includes over 20,000 police officers. “The depth and speed of cuts have put into doubt the sustainability of our cherished model of policing, which is a very proactive and preventative approach. We
do not want to have to move to a more reactive model. To avoid that we have to be innovative and creative if we are to prevent our diminishing capacity translating into reduced capability.” The highly-informed audience did not hold back in the question and answer session. The Chief Constable was asked to respond to worries regarding how many of the policing priorities detailed in the lecture, aimed at targeting female genital mutilation, honour killing, modern slavery and terrorism, could lead to the discrimination of certain ethnic and religious groups. He responded that policies would not be directed at certain communities but also discussed how to deal with incidences committed within diverse groups. He said: “We must get close to our diverse communities. If we feel we must go into these communities to address relevant issues, the more we can get the support from these groups to deal with offences, the stronger we will be. “This unfortunately will be difficult going forward as police are very thin on the ground.”