Respect for Women
An incident in the UK

Presidents Club scandal ... First thoughts ... Pity the ‘hostesses’ at this revolting gropefest dressed up as a charity do ... A fundraising dinner at the Dorchester treats women as a petting zoo for captains of industry and business

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Presidents Club scandal First thoughts Pity the ‘hostesses’ at this revolting gropefest dressed up as a charity do

A fundraising dinner at the Dorchester treats women as a petting zoo for captains of industry and business


FT secret filming at the Dorchester

Now we have been let in on the terrible secret that wealthy men at the heart of the business and political establishment behave like cheap lechers on a stag night, we may wonder how much of a secret this is, and who has been keeping it.

A brilliant report from a Financial Times journalist has revealed what it is like to be a hostess at the Presidents Club, a men-only dinner at the Dorchester that raises money for charity. But this event has been going for 33 years. It was introduced by a Channel 5 baseball presenter called Jonny Gould, with the words: “Welcome to the most un-PC event of the year.”

Political correctness gone mad, you see, means that you cannot grope 19-year-olds who have been told to wear matching underwear under tight skirts while bunging some dosh to Great Ormond Street.

Political correctness gone mad means that you cannot place a bid in a charity auction for plastic surgery to “spice up your wife” with your pissed mates. Political correctness gone mad means that even though you splash your cash bidding for dates with Ian Botham or Boris Johnson, the women employed to be in the same room as you may not want to have sex with you or enjoy being pestered by you. What is the world coming to for these chaps?

It is bizarre – is it not? – that these captains of industry and business need to gather in men-only gangs to give money to hospitals? Is some sort of deal struck that says: we will show you pictures of children in intensive care, but don’t worry! To compensate, we will provide a petting zoo of pretty young women. Why do such men have to be seen to be giving publicly to charity? I guess they like to expose themselves in more ways than one.

The detail is nauseating: the hostesses who have been tracked to the toilet and told to see the organiser if it’s all getting too much. The parading on stage of the girls. The hands up the skirts, and the strange business of attendees holding the women’s hands as though they were possessions.

It is a less exotic version of Jezebels, in The Handmaid’s Tale – except this was the Dorchester, and these men include politicians and business leaders who pay lip service to promoting policies of equality in the workplace.

These men have wives and daughters. So why, on a night out, are other women taxied in and delivered to their tables? I did some hostessing when I was young and worked in America. It is arduous even pretending to be interested in self-absorbed egoists. I was excellent at it, as you can imagine.

But this is 2018, guys, and we are in the middle of a sea change. We are living through the #MeToo movement and talking daily about sexual harassment in the workplace. Sure, a lot of people (including Germaine Greer) are confused about what constitutes coercion. We are not that confused, however, about rape or sexual assault, and we understand that harassment is always an abuse of power.

So here we have powerful men groping much younger women who have been asked to sign nondisclosure agreements – which suggests, surely, that “issues” have arisen in the past. And these men are kidding themselves that this is somehow all for charity.

True, deals get done in lap-dancing clubs and on golf courses, and women have fought hard to move up in a culture that operates like this. But were we wrong to think there is more to male bonding than an implicit agreement that women are walking bar snacks? I believe many of the attendees may have been uncomfortable with all this. But what exactly did they think they were going to – an evening of whist?

Nothing is going to stop these wealthy ferals behaving badly, but let this not be done in the name of charity. Let it not be done by our public representatives or by CEOs who boast of getting more women in the boardroom.

And if you want a good cause, here’s one: equality for women. Indeed one might have thought, post-Weinstein, that getting your penis out in front of a student at a fundraising dinner is not the wisest of moves. But the gentlemen’s agreement that it somehow is has been busted. The cover is blown, to reveal that the top of society looks like a bunch of lowlife men who reinforce each other’s scummy behaviour. This isn’t about a few men, though. An entire structure enables this – one that turns giving to charity into a circle jerk over the bodies of young women.

Disgust alone is not enough to dismantle this system. But it is sure as hell a good place to start. That and yes, strengthening our equalities legislation. These men celebrated as “winners” as they flash their cash look today like pathetic losers. Good. They cannot buy their way out of that.