It's official: Brit blokes like to talk about sport, sex, and women while supping a pint, according to shock research outlined in The Publican.

Chaps' main conversational priorities are: sport (64 per cent said they'd chewed the fat over the footie); their social lives (42 per cent); work (40 per cent); news/politics (40 per cent); their sex lives (27 per cent); the missus (26 per cent).

Although the figures look like they've been concocted by the department of the bleedin' obvious, there are some interesting trends to be gleaned from the results. For instance, the number of men now discussing their other half has skyrocketed from nine per cent last year to the present 26 per cent. Sex and social lives are also enjoying increased popularity, up from 24 and 34 per cent, respectively.

Pete Brown, who wrote Man Walks into a Pub: A Sociable History of Beer, declared: "It's incredible to think about, but the pub has been the hub of British social life for a 1,000 years. Over that time it's always been the place where people meet to relax, and just to be themselves, so what we talk about in the pub reveals the truth about what's really important to us.

"This research proves that men are a lot more thoughtful and articulate than we are often given credit for. Blokes are more in touch with their feelings these days - and the place where they feel most comfortable expressing them is over a beer in the pub."

Thoughtful and articulate? Hmmm. One final statistic reveals that there's been "an 11 per cent increase [in the last year] in the number of men talking about fashion in the pub". If true, we reckon it might be on account of observations such as: "Hey, you see that Naomi Campbell had to sweep out a New York warehouse? Totally bonkers, but I'd still give it one." This, of course is rather more correctly filed under "sex". ®

Bootnote

A hearty cheers to Mike Chadwick for the heads-up on this one.

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