StevenG

He has probably been taught not to lead out Aces (other than from AK), or to underlead an Ace. If he's not leading a club, what other choice has he got?

1NT

The small slam scored 14/16. Looking for a grand at MPs in a moderate field is a losing prospect.

Read what I said. I said nothing about looking at foreigners. Anyone who knows me will know that I am not racist in any way. You seem to use an argument that is all too common these days. 1) Racists oppose immigration. Therefore 2) anyone who suggests that immigration can cause problems is a racist. That argument is fallacious.

Why do you not actually read what I said and think about the economic argument? You just seem to filter anything you instictively disagree with through your own lens. (You never used to be like this; I always thought you one of the more sensible commentators here.) I do not have any desire to get rid of you from the UK. There is no problem with itinerant mathematicians. I am horrified by the way this appalling government treats people who have built a life here, whether that's Windrush or EU citizens or anyone else in a similar position. I do not wish to expel anybody, merely move to a system that creates a better life for people who are already here. I would have no problem of freedom of movement at all if it did not result in a significant inflow. What I do object to, as I said in my previous post, is the distortion it creates in the labour market. I have watched this country get poorer over my entire adult life, and I believe that inefficiencies in the labour market are a significant cause. (I worked this out about 30 years ago, and nothing I've seen since has changed my mind.) Since you are a better mathematician than I am, could you please explain how importing people to do non-essential jobs that do not create any wealth can do other than reduce resources for people for are already here. And can you explain how a system that seems to always create a need for more labour than is available is sustainable in the long term.

Why should we care about the hospitality industry? It is an industry that does not create any wealth, merely economic activity. Why is it struggling? Because it relies heavily on foreign labour. Why does it rely on foreign labour? Because the pay and the working conditions are atrocious - so atrocious that even those British people who need bottom-end jobs can usually find better elsewhere. So it seems to me that the country as a whole is better off. We have fewer people that need feeding, housing, etc., but we are not losing the fundamental economic value of a pure service industry, which is to distribute wealth around the people of the country. Of course, if the industry were to adjust with better wages and more civilised working conditions, it would be able to compete with other service industries. But for me, if people are going to work in non-wealth creating jobs, I'd rather they worked in something useful and necessary - care or the NHS for example. I've said before that I wanted to escape "freedom of movement", that I wanted this country to have the ability to control immigration. The visible effects on the hospitality industry are exactly what I wanted to see, but I want to see it over the entire economy. I want to see higher wages at the bottom end. I want to see better working conditions. I want to see better training, so that our young people acquire proper skills, rather than employers just poaching trained people from abroad. The amount of skills this country has lost over the last few decades is frightening. Free movement has damaged the way the labour market works to the detriment of ordinary people in this country, but to the benefit of the better off who get nice cheap labour (and a nice, warm fuzzy feeling about how liberal they are). If that's coming to an end, I'm all for it. However, these aren't normal times. We don't know how much of this is side-effects of Covid. maybe things will return to something like the old normal in the long run. I hope not.

I don't play 2/1 or any 5-card major system so this probably a stupid question. Can you bid 4♥ on the first hand? You've effectively denied 3 card support, I would have thought.

I would like it to show me my partner's points as well.

"Limit raise" might be fine in the US, but I don't think it's worldwide. It's not used in any of my Acol books, and I've never heard a club player use the term. "Limit bid" is in my old books, but there are multiple limit bids with different meanings. What you call a limit raise is just one of them.

I was wondering what theorems the average Guardian journalist would not consider obscure.

[hv=pc=n&s=sq8haqt654da732c5&d=w&v=0&b=8&a=p1h2h]133|200[/hv] IMPs. We play Acol with 4-card majors and weak no trump. 1♥ could be a 15+ hand with 4 hearts and 4 of a minor. 2♥ is described as spades and a minor. I wasn't sure how to investigate slam safely here. We have RKCB available, splinters and normal cue bidding, but nothing fancy. Advice welcome.

If I'm chatting to my partner before a tournament, or privately between rounds, then I remain chatting to partner after BBO moves us to our next table, even though that chat is now disallowed. Chat should be changed to table under those circumstances.

Because they've just improved it?

I can read very fast when I choose to.

I learned both Extended Stayman and Stayman in Doubt as integral parts of Acol when I was starting out in the 80s and 90s. I've long forgotten them, but a partner pulled Stayman in Doubt on me in a congress game about 10 years ago. I had no idea what was going on.