The new puritanism trumps the good that donations to Great Ormond Street can do

SIR – To appease the outcry from disingenuous puritans, Great Ormond Street Hospital is giving back the money it received from the Presidents Club dinner at the Dorchester.

I wonder how pleased the desperately sick children in that hospital are about this.

Anthony Whitehead

Bristol

SIR – I can understand why charities feel they must return the money given to them as a result of donations raised at the Presidents Club dinner, but I can see no reason why the donors cannot then return the money directly to the charities concerned.

Valerie Crews

Beckenham, Kent

SIR – Why does Great Ormond Street Hospital not distribute the donations received from the Presidents Club to women’s shelters rather than return it to the abusers?

Richard Henderson

Shipston-on-stour, Warwickshire

SIR – If hospitals no longer need donations, I shall cease giving any.

Money has no smell. The penny from the offertory box is indistinguishable from the one in the toilet door.

Stephen Bedford

North Cookley, Worcestershire

SIR – I fail to comprehend why the closure of this old boys’ club and its salacious though unsurprising goings-on are headline news.

Fiona Wild

Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

SIR – Are we seriously being asked to believe that 130 females are so thick that, when accepting a job where they have to wear certain clothing at an all-male function and are encouraged to drink, they are unaware of what might happen? Grow up!

Pamela Plumb

London NW1

SIR – I help run the Rigor Mortis Club, a luncheon club for (mostly) retired gentlemen. Should it be disbanded?

Dr David L Hearn

Yateley, Hampshire

SIR – Last November I attended the black-tie men’s dinner at my golf club. As you can imagine, with nearly 100 men gathered in one room, the behaviour was quite disgraceful.

Men were drinking beer and wine, laughing and joking, talking about golf, rugby and football – no attempt to discuss sexual harassment of women or transgender issues. Indeed, the only woman mentioned was Theresa May and I cannot report what was said about her in a family newspaper.

Adrian O’connor

Ruislip, Middlesex

SIR – Now that male clubs are being tackled for bad behaviour, can we hope for the demise of all-female hen parties and their sexist behaviour?

Dorothea Barnes

Southend-on-sea, Essex

SIR – I was once a partner in a wine bar and restaurant. We had our fair share of men-only groups and, frankly, they could be a pain in the neck for all concerned.

But for outright bad behaviour they couldn’t hold a candle to the womenonly groups. Current reporting of poor behaviour does seem very one-sided .

Vincent Hearne

Nabinaud, Charente, France

SIR – Polly Vernon (Features, January 25) claims that “a drunk man is rarely a ‘woke’ man – that is a right-on man with a social conscience”.

Very few woke men will ever earn enough to afford events like the Presidents Club dinner. Where moneymaking is concerned, “bloke” tends to beat “woke”, hands down.

Damien Mccrystal

London W14

SIR – Will this be the last year in which there are separate best-acting Bafta awards for men and women?

David Mcfetrich

Poole, Dorset