Yes, men behave badly. But let’s not get hysterical

Yes, yes, oh my God. I am outraged at the sleazeball Presidents Club bash at the Dorchester Hotel. I am appalled by this gropers’ gala, this fiesta of hot paw fumble where captains of industry and their sweating underlings palpitated with lust, bow-ties akimbo, as they were welcomed by pretty young hostesses at the hotel door.

I suppose one must be glad the Club has closed down, despite raising more than £20 million for charity over the years, and that no one will ever again be humiliated again by a David Walliams after-dinner joke, an underdone 34-day-old fillet steak, or a pathetic creep who is big in the insurance business insisting on holding your hand as he eats his pudding. But can I say something? I wasn’t that outraged. I wasn’t that shocked. I don’t think that Great Ormond street Hospital should have sent their money back in a fit of high-profile pique.

self-righteousness versus a new kidney machine for the kiddies? It’s a no-contest. I don’t think for one second that all the men behaved badly, although you can bet that some of the dopes did.

I find it sad that this kind of retrograde, men-only gallivanting for City types is still going on — in 2018! — but while I think it regrettable, I didn’t think it was that terrible.

Come on. Certainly not as terrible as Jess Phillips MP, who was practically oscillating with rage as she talked of young women ‘bought as bait for rich men’.

Not as bad as London mayor sadiq Khan and Commons speaker John Bercow, the Pinky and ever-so-Perky puppets of fashionable outrage, quick on the double draw to get their squeaky voices heard on the latest scandale du jour.

Mr BERCOW feels the issue is ‘a matter of the utmost importance’ while Mr Khan is ‘utterly appalled by the behaviour’. One might have hoped the London mayor would be rather more appalled by the huge rises in knife crime, killings and robberies on the Capital’s streets, but there you go. However, it was a bad business. There is no excuse for the unedifying spectacle of grown men who should know better being boorish in the presence of pretty young girls.

Yet I can’t quite agree with the heart-rending depiction of these 130 hostesses as poor little sexCinderellas adrift in a swamp of victimalia, forced at the point of a nail file into skimpy dresses, matching underwear and high heels.

Then made to sign non-disclosure agreements and have their phones removed. Most of those commentators and politicians who have been shrieking the loudest will certainly have been to celebrity parties, to theatre first-night celebrations or film premieres and the like where it is normal for hospitality and waiting staff to undergo the same strictures, give or take the black knickers.

As the Presidents Club hostesses were required to be ‘tall, thin and pretty’, presumably they understood and accepted that they had been hired for their looks — and the nature of the men-only event. Bawdy, one supposes, but not criminal.

The girls were paid £150 for a sixhour shift, plus £25 for a taxi home — pretty good money, considering that the minimum wage is around £7 per hour, depending on age.

Plainer waitresses who toil unnoticed in the Dorchester banqueting suites and restaurants could expect a much more punishing or back-breaking shift for a third of the money, followed by a trip home on late-night public transport.

Of course, no amount of money in the world could ever justify a man touching a woman against her will, but a sense of perspective here wouldn’t go amiss, if only to dampen down the rising hysteria.

The police are being asked to investigate, even if, at time of writing, no one has complained of any crime being committed. somebody said that somebody said that a man had exposed himself — awful, if true. Bottoms were pinched. Idiots were idiots until they got drunk, when they become even more idiotic in time-honoured tradition.

One commentator shrieked that it sent a message to ‘rich, entitled men’ that they were ‘not going to get away with it any more’. Get away with what, exactly? some are reacting as if the hostesses were girlish innocents abducted by Boko Haram, sold into white slavery or worse, instead of sentient adults who made an informed decision about the nature of the evening and got out just about unscathed, with money in their purses.

Theresa May says there is a lot more work to be done to combat the objectification of women — and she is right. However, there is one thing that no regulation or piece of legislation can ever, ever change.

And that is the happy belief of ageing, mottled, pot-bellied, combover multi-millionaire men that they are somehow irresistibly attractive to beautiful young women. some of these women are good at dealing with this conviction while using it to their own advantage, and God bless them every one. some women are not and should steer clear.

In the name of charity, there is no excuse for the worst of the Presidents Clubbers’ behaviour, but let’s all get a grip. Figuratively speaking.