Presidents menu?

The much-publicised alleged harrassing of female waitresses at the Presidents Club seems to have gone unnoticed by many at the dinner, who have said on TV they saw nothing untoward going on. Bearing in mind that a journalist attended the dinner incognito, perhaps the reporting in the press should be taken with a large sprinkling of salt. Too bad for the children’s charity, though. MIKE TWADDLE Raeburn Heights

Glenrothes, Fife Bob Taylor and James Watson wrongly compare the appalling behaviour of some of the male guests at the Presidents Club charity dinner to the behaviour of some women on hen nights, which can certainly be unpleasant to witness, but which doesn’t reflect an imbalance of power (Letters, 26 January). The women were made to dress like prostitutes, paraded across a stage at the beginning of the event, and, in a departure from the norm for hostesses at similar events, were not just allowed to drink alcohol, but were encouraged to do so, for reasons which are not hard to discern. Some were pretty drunk by the end of the night.

Their visits to the toilet were also monitored, and timed. A security guard was posted at the door: if a woman spent too long in the toilet she was called out and led back to the ballroom. The women were also advised not to tell their boyfriends (or girlfriends) that this was to be a men-only event. The reason for such discretion is only too obvious. The charity auction later in the evening offered, as one of the prizes, plastic surgery for the guests’ wives, to “add spice to your wife”. Any man who laughed at that (and many did) was guilty of betrayal.

The encouragement to be “nice” to the guests to get the money flowing in was tantamount to prostitution at one remove: no wonder this event left a lot of those young women feeling violated. CAROLYN TAYLOR

Gagiebank Broughty Ferry, Dundee