Charity should never begin at a lavish gala dinner
Like most people, the attendees at the Presidents Club dinner don’t like to talk about their charity work. Unlike most people, it’s because theirs involves young hostesses being groped while wearing short skirts and sky-high heels.
I suppose people are always trying to come up with strange ways to raise money for good causes, such as bathing in baked beans or throwing buckets of ice over themselves. But even so, this does seem to be taking things a little too far.
I don’t think that Great Ormond Street should be sending any money back but, as we are looking at the ways in which people fund-raise, I wonder if we might consider why the very rich feel that they are only able to donate to good causes if it involves a lavish dinner at a five-star hotel and an auction where they can show off their considerable wealth by outbidding a rival for some plastic surgery for their wives.
The charity gala has always left me feeling a little uneasy: watch as the great and the good get dressed up, chuck Champagne and scallops down their throats, and then try to hold it together during the serious video featuring starving children that is shown just before the auction, but after dessert.
Is there any other way these people could give to charity, I wonder? If the likes of Sir Philip Green and Mr Tamara Ecclestone are really struggling to find ways to donate, I’d be happy to point them towards the chuggers on my local high street, who seem desperate to sign people up for monthly direct debit payments. My email address is at the top of the page if you need the details, Phil!