anyone coming into the club on a singers night will be made aware that some of the acts will not be of professional standard.

I am not sure if anyone is asking for support acts and singers in clubs to be of professional standard. I personally am certainly not - asking for professional attitude is much more important (and from professionals too).

Not needing to apologise for not knowing the words; chords; meaning of the song; (Shores of Erin anyone?); no sympathetic attitude to the audience; singing a long ballad immediately after someone else has just sung a long ballad, etc. etc.

And please do not sing your teenage diary - it is not repeat not interesting.

Like I said earlier in this thread and I suspect others feel the same - I used to go to folk clubs on a regular basis because I often came across good singers I had not come across before. They got fewer and fewer and the poor singers got more and more frequent - hence I stopped going.

There is - I acknowledge - a school of thought that says anyone can be allowed to sing in front of a paying audience. I don't agree with it and I believe it is (just one) of the reasons for the collapse of folk clubs - NB not folk music which is thriving.