THE Mersey wind may whip up a chill on the streets, but when it comes to heat generated from doing good deeds, Liverpool is on fire at the top of a UK feelgood chart, according to this week's PR puff.
Performing random acts of kindness makes 65 per cent of Liverpudlians come all over fuzzy – proving that if you spread a little happiness, then you get it back in theoretical spadefuls.
Nationally, Liverpool has more than its fair share of happiness – at least in the face of new research announced by cosmetic surgery giant Transform.
It identifies Liverpool as the UK’s fifth cheeriest city, with a quarter of Liverpudlians claiming they feel good every single day of the week.
Unfortunately (depending on which side of the scalpel you are on) it's all downhill from there.
It says a third of Liverpudlians never feel good about themselves. And 53pc of Liverpudlians rarely feel good about themselves - "uncovering deep-rooted insecurities and lack of self-esteem".
Meanwhile, the female of the scouse species could be renamed the female of the scowl species with just one in 10 women sporting the feel good factor, according to the announcement.
It is all part of Transform’s Feel Good Campaign, a series of initiatives with the aim of empowering the nation, it says.
Delving into what makes the UK population feel good about themselves - or not – the poll saw Sheffield come out on top in the happiness stakes, closely followed by Edinburgh, Brighton and Cardiff, with a third of Sheffielders claiming they feel good every single day of the week.
But while there may be plenty of satisfied smiles going around, augmented or otherwise, it seems that in these parts it's nothing to do with sex in the city.
Liverpool could only fumble its way into 11th place - in the bottom half of the league table - when it came to matters relating to the, er, bottom half.
Sad and happy on the infographIndeed, in boudoir related issues, Norwich, home of Alan Partridge and Delia Smith came out on top - with sex high on their list of feel good factors.
Receiving a compliment was seen to change half of all Liverpudlians’ days for the better (“Nicola, them massive new breasts of yours are proper boss, mate. Where did you get them?”).
According to the findings: “Most startling is that for over a third of respondents, facing themselves in the mirror ranked highest in terms of situations where confidence escaped them."
It added: "When offered a hypothetical wand to change something about their person, a tenth of the 55+ age bracket cited that they wouldn’t change a thing. Yet for a younger group in Liverpool, it would seem the battle of the bulge still weighs heavily on the mind with 45pc stating excess weight would be the first to go.
"Other insecurities highlighted included dealing with bank or utility companies, which left nearly one fifth of adults quivering like jelly, a third felt they had no confidence when out and about clothes shopping and a worrying 38.9pc of parents felt they have no confidence to pass on to their children."
Happier timesSteven Taylor, Marketing Director at Transform, which has 27 UK clinics, said: “Although it’s upsetting that still so many (Liverpudlians) feel so low on a regular occurrence and how little confidence they have, it’s refreshing to hear that confidence levels are on the up for the majority of people in Liverpool. We want to highlight these findings and continue to produce a nation of confident and fearless Britons.”
In 2010, people across the UK spent £2.3 billion on cosmetic procedures ranging from Botox to breast implants, liposuction and tummy tucks.
But that's nothing to 2015's projections when the industry will be worth £3.6bn.
“Back of the net!” as Alan Partridge might say.
