A woman’s place is at centre of debate

The nonsense spouted about the supposed social evil of men-only clubs – Chitra Ramaswamy (Perspective, 18 July) hilariously describes this as “subjugation” of women – just baffles me.

Why would anyone want to frequent an establishment where they clearly feel unwelcome and are probably likely to be resented if allowed in by legislation? I strongly suspect many of those complaining of such “injustice” actually have neither desire nor intention to patronise the premises concerned.

Maybe it’s a matter of “rights”, “principles” and “democracy”. Well, that would require politically correct redefinition of all three terms.

Properly applied to any society, these elements would allow any group of like-minded, law-abiding citizens to engage in any lawful activity as they see fit – without need to explain their private arrangements to outsiders.

ROBERT DOW

Ormiston Road

Tranent, East Lothian

The mania for equal rights has gone the way of so many silly campaigns by harming the very group supposed to benefit therefrom.

Golf is a classic example. The veteran golf commentator, Peter Alliss, recently fumed that equal rights for women has caused mayhem, insofar as the Ladies’ Golf Union has lost 150,000 members because equality requires them to pay full subscriptions instead of half fare.

The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers (often wrongly referred to as “Muirfield Golf Club”) has come under immense pressure to admit ladies as full members. Mr Alliss suggested to some ladies there that they must be happy about equality campaigns. Their response was: “God no, we can do what we like here and play for nothing!”

The same goes for my own club, the Bruntsfield Links Golfing Society, where rules for ladies are extremely liberal.

Nevertheless, once their destructive aims have been achieved, the self righteous equality campaigners will sit back and smugly contemplate a job well done.

DAVID HOLLINGDALE

Easter Park Drive

Edinburgh

Recent correspondence and Chitra Ramaswamy’s piece on exclusively male clubs have brought to mind the old conundrum – should the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) be thrown open to elderly female atheists?

S BECK

Craigleith Drive

Edinburgh