Ah, those zany Brits. When it comes to tightening their belts due because of today’s credit crunch, they’d rather pull the belt off — along with the rest of their clothes.

It’s something to keep in mind the next time mind-numbing procurement and Purchasing numbers threaten to push you over the edge.

After all, there can be a brighter side to a shrinking economy.

Case in point: A recent survey assessing free leisure-time activities has found that 37% of Britons cited sex as their No. 1 choice.

The next three activities cited by those surveyed:

• Gossiping with friends — 18%
• Window shopping — 9%, and
• Going to museums — 6%

It wasn’t a unanimous choice, though.

There was a rather distinct gender gap:

• 53% of men named sex as their top choice, while
• 21% of women led their list with the same

Turns out that women — 28% in the survey — preferred to dish dirty with friends, rather than a toss between the sheets.

But leave it to the spokesperson for Terrence Higgins Trust, the sexual health charity behind the survey, to plant tongue firmly in cheek when describing the results:

“During the credit crunch, our famed British upper lip might not be as stiff as before, but other parts still are,” noted the Trust’s head of policy.

Tags: procurement, purchasing