Three quarters of people think it is fine to sleep with someone on a first date, according to a new survey. Here is some comments made in the Guardian today:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1687891,00.html

James Brown
former editor of Loaded magazine

I think sex on a first date is fine as long as you get a receipt.

Julie Burchill
writer

Personally - and this is all theory and memories as I am extremely happily married - I would never date someone until I had had sex with them. You might be wasting time hanging around with someone who's rubbish in bed.

Michael Winner
film director

Sex on the first date is not only acceptable, it is totally desirable. I always say to girls, "I'm at my best now. If you wait, my true character might start showing and ruin everything." It starts things off with a bang, as if someone is giving you a present without waiting. Sex on a first date is either a sign that they trust you, or that they don't give a damn. Many of my best and longest relationships have been with people who performed on the first day, so I tend to believe it's the former.

Colin Murray
Radio 1 DJ

As a teenager, I wouldn't have said no, but as a 28-year-old, if I meet someone I like, I prefer not to have sex for a while - and certainly not on the first date. I think there is a lot to be said for waiting a while. Apart from anything, the sex will be better.


Dylan Jones
executive editor of GQ

If this is really a date, and not just a lucky glance in a bar, then I don't think either party wants or expects sex. The male assumption - sexist, I know, but true - is that if a woman will have sex with you on a first date then she'll have sex with anyone on a first date. It's like the old Groucho Marx saying: I wouldn't want to belong a club that would have me as a member. However, every woman knows that no man is ever going to turn down sex on a first date, even if he says otherwise. Of course, there are those girls who say, "Well I'll stay ... But I don't want to do anything." And we all know where that leads ...

It is an interesting social change. Of course there is a difference between
1) number of teenage boys who want sex on a first date
2) number of teenage boys who actually get sex on a first date
3) number of teenage boys who say they had sex on a first date.

cf teenage girls.

It does suggest that the idea of giving pupils contraceptive advice is pretty vital.

At every conceivable moment