Well there is at least one good thing about the Eurovision Song contest. It is a useful reminder of exactly how low the esteem in which much of Europe holds the UK actually is - and curiously places outside Europe like Russia and Israel hold the UK. There seems to be some following for the Contest in Australia, maybe they should participate, they are surely just as 'qualified' as Israel or Russia.
Still, covering 40% of the costs together with only France, Germany and Spain is a steep price for this knowledge. Italy sensibly decided Enough was enough. It could be the automatic qualification for the final when better songs do not make it this massive expenditure buys us probably does not help.
Of course Russia does not like us at the moment, due to the diplomatic row over some mysterious unidentified party killing off Russian dissidents on British soil. The Balkan states know what side their bread is buttered, but it does have to be said the UK entry this year was not, by objective standards, by any means the best, or most likely to do well on it’s ’Euro’ merit.
By the new Eurovision standards the Russian entry was good, but despite the voting probably not the best.
It would be interesting to see how well the UK would perform if the psychology of the Euro sound were to be analysed and a group and song were to be crafted, specifically designed to succeed, rather than relying on the proven inability of the British public to judge current, heavily East European influenced, ‘Euro’ taste.
It would also be interesting to see a complete change in the voting system where all the votes were pooled. It is simply ludicrous that a country with the population of Andorra has the same voting clout as one with a population the size of Germany.
Maybe it would be much better if an arrangement were found where all participating countries paid their fair percentage share, based on their population and no one automatically made the final too.
If these changes can not be made in time for next year’s contest then surely it would be better if the UK followed the Italian example, withdrew from the contest and took it’s cash with it.
Showing posts with label Eurovision. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eurovision. Show all posts
Tuesday, 27 May 2008
Saturday, 24 May 2008
The Eurovision song 'contest' rolls round once again
Tonight is the night of one of the greatest wastes of British TV taxpayer’s money in the entire year. The Eurovision Song Contest.
It is saved, mostly by the fact that watching the often frankly amazing performances appeals to the sneaking desire to watch a curiosity, combined by Terry Wogan’s gentle micky taking on behalf of us all.
Humourless European officials decry his efforts, whilst failing to grasp he is probably the only thing that keeps the opinion of the UK public in a mood of benign amusement - as opposed to outright contempt.
The 'contest' is intrinsically silly and unfair, it always has been. He does not need to make it look that way, he just uses the fact that it is to entertain us...
We all know we have very little chance of even doing well in it. We know we are not particularly popular with Europe as a whole, given our relationship with the US. But mostly it is the voting system and the blocks that doom all the old large western European nations.
Namely the Baltic and Balkan voting blocks.
Firstly each group tends, by accident, or design, to vote the high points largely exclusively for other members of ‘their’ block.
This, combined with the fact that a microscopic country that consists of several small towns, has the same voting power as a huge country with a population of multiple millions. Tends to give them a lock on the contest, no matter how good or more likely bad the particular entries happen to be.
It’s as if you were to give each county in the UK an individual vote and they all voted for the UK, and Irish entries.
How different would the results be it it were down to a simple total of all the votes cast for each entry, with no country being able to vote for it's own entry?
One suspects it won’t be much different for Andy Abraham tonight. One fears how good the song, or the performance, is will only have a peripheral impact on how well it actually does. The fact that I don’t come right out and predict it is more a triumph of optimism over experience than anything else. We shall see on the morrow…
It is saved, mostly by the fact that watching the often frankly amazing performances appeals to the sneaking desire to watch a curiosity, combined by Terry Wogan’s gentle micky taking on behalf of us all.
Humourless European officials decry his efforts, whilst failing to grasp he is probably the only thing that keeps the opinion of the UK public in a mood of benign amusement - as opposed to outright contempt.
The 'contest' is intrinsically silly and unfair, it always has been. He does not need to make it look that way, he just uses the fact that it is to entertain us...
We all know we have very little chance of even doing well in it. We know we are not particularly popular with Europe as a whole, given our relationship with the US. But mostly it is the voting system and the blocks that doom all the old large western European nations.
Namely the Baltic and Balkan voting blocks.
Firstly each group tends, by accident, or design, to vote the high points largely exclusively for other members of ‘their’ block.
This, combined with the fact that a microscopic country that consists of several small towns, has the same voting power as a huge country with a population of multiple millions. Tends to give them a lock on the contest, no matter how good or more likely bad the particular entries happen to be.
It’s as if you were to give each county in the UK an individual vote and they all voted for the UK, and Irish entries.
How different would the results be it it were down to a simple total of all the votes cast for each entry, with no country being able to vote for it's own entry?
One suspects it won’t be much different for Andy Abraham tonight. One fears how good the song, or the performance, is will only have a peripheral impact on how well it actually does. The fact that I don’t come right out and predict it is more a triumph of optimism over experience than anything else. We shall see on the morrow…
Sunday, 2 September 2007
What is the point of Eurovision?
Saturday evening saw the inception of a new Eurovision contest. The bastard offspring of The Eurovision Song Contest and Strictly Ballroom.
The ruthless all pervading publicity machine for the ‘event’ ensured I discovered it was on by chance on Saturday evening.
Given that there was little else on that was worth bothering with the CFD household watched out of curiosity.
As it turned out Finland won in the end, with quite a reasonable effort. Though one suspects, given the overall voting patterns, that the results would not have been much different if Finland had entered Rolf Harris doing a three legged tap dance.
Yes it was clearly infected with the same old inherently dodgy Eurovision voting.
I expect it would be possible to devise a formula to calculate the likely votes:
A large percentage seems to be based on good old-fashioned ‘national’ prejudices, both for and against.
Then there is the matter of how close a neighbour it is.
Then there is the political factor the “who do they need to suck up to right now” - and "who do they need to trash" factor.
Then finally there is the “was the act actually any good?” factor. This can have some impact but only seems to come into effect after the other influences.
The questions that really need answering are why we bother at all, given proven experience and the inherently corrupt voting system? Also why we contribute so much towards bankrolling such a farce?
One Eurovision contest is getting a bit too much these days, let alone two.
The ruthless all pervading publicity machine for the ‘event’ ensured I discovered it was on by chance on Saturday evening.
Given that there was little else on that was worth bothering with the CFD household watched out of curiosity.
As it turned out Finland won in the end, with quite a reasonable effort. Though one suspects, given the overall voting patterns, that the results would not have been much different if Finland had entered Rolf Harris doing a three legged tap dance.
Yes it was clearly infected with the same old inherently dodgy Eurovision voting.
I expect it would be possible to devise a formula to calculate the likely votes:
The questions that really need answering are why we bother at all, given proven experience and the inherently corrupt voting system? Also why we contribute so much towards bankrolling such a farce?
One Eurovision contest is getting a bit too much these days, let alone two.
Saturday, 12 May 2007
Democracy in Action - Voting
I note the ‘heats’ for the Eurovision Song Contest were on Thursday evening (10th May). There was the usual spread of stuff on offer - of varying quality.
When they announced the vote results though, as far as I could tell, regardless of the merit of the offerings, apart from Turkey, only eastern European efforts actually made it through to the final - and some that did I felt were embarrassingly ghastly.
It often seems that in the past the Nordic countries voted for each other, according to the great sage Wogan. Now it could be the Eastern Europeans are taking a leaf out of their books.
What is the betting the main contest goes in a similar direction? We shall see this evening.
In any event the results seem to be based on approval of the states involved rather than having any relation to any merit of the songs.
All in fun, you may say and that’s as may be., but by accident, or intent, it looks as if the vote may be being consistently ‘tactically’ distorted.
The underlying theme, that goes largely unnoticed, is that this is a problem with virtually all voting systems.
I am not sure if the Eurovision system of national votes could be regarded as a Borda Count system, but internally within the UK it looks more like an Approval Voting system. The overall effect being a combination. It would be interesting to know what methods the other nations use.
I wonder if it might be better to switch to a Condorcet system. Any thoughts on the subject of voting anyone?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eurovision is over for another year, the taste of ashes in our mouths ;-)
“Flying the flag” is a descendant (and inheritor) of “making your mind up” and by all rights should have done well. Done well, that is, until the admission and proliferation of Eastern European States – oh and Tony B upset everyone in western Europe.
What we recognise as the 'Euro' sound has changed. It was a sort of lowest common denominator of the old Europe’s musical tastes, the sort of thing that does well in the clubs of the med.
Eastern Europe however has added a new (Early 8os) element - Anthemic Power Rock, plus fireworks and black leather gear, a sort of love child of Aerosmith and Europe (the group)
I know there is much dark talk of block voting - and there may well be an element of that – but next year!
Next year Tony and his inheritance of continental disapproval may have faded from French and German minds.
Next year, if we can cobble together a group of long haired, reasonably slim aging hard rockers capable of lasting through such an energetic number and carrying off black leather and studs. Accompanied by some leather (if scantily) clad young, operatically voiced women. A sort of a cross between belly dancers and biker chicks.
Next year, if we can craft an anthemic European power ballad that can stir the eastern European sole.
If we can lay our hands on enough fireworks...
Then maybe we will be able, once again, hold our heads high in the halls of Europe – and - who knows, apart from funding a huge chunk of the cost of the contest, possibly even have to go to the additional expense and bother of hosting it too! What more could you ask?
When they announced the vote results though, as far as I could tell, regardless of the merit of the offerings, apart from Turkey, only eastern European efforts actually made it through to the final - and some that did I felt were embarrassingly ghastly.
It often seems that in the past the Nordic countries voted for each other, according to the great sage Wogan. Now it could be the Eastern Europeans are taking a leaf out of their books.
What is the betting the main contest goes in a similar direction? We shall see this evening.
In any event the results seem to be based on approval of the states involved rather than having any relation to any merit of the songs.
All in fun, you may say and that’s as may be., but by accident, or intent, it looks as if the vote may be being consistently ‘tactically’ distorted.
The underlying theme, that goes largely unnoticed, is that this is a problem with virtually all voting systems.
I am not sure if the Eurovision system of national votes could be regarded as a Borda Count system, but internally within the UK it looks more like an Approval Voting system. The overall effect being a combination. It would be interesting to know what methods the other nations use.
I wonder if it might be better to switch to a Condorcet system. Any thoughts on the subject of voting anyone?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eurovision is over for another year, the taste of ashes in our mouths ;-)
“Flying the flag” is a descendant (and inheritor) of “making your mind up” and by all rights should have done well. Done well, that is, until the admission and proliferation of Eastern European States – oh and Tony B upset everyone in western Europe.
What we recognise as the 'Euro' sound has changed. It was a sort of lowest common denominator of the old Europe’s musical tastes, the sort of thing that does well in the clubs of the med.
Eastern Europe however has added a new (Early 8os) element - Anthemic Power Rock, plus fireworks and black leather gear, a sort of love child of Aerosmith and Europe (the group)
I know there is much dark talk of block voting - and there may well be an element of that – but next year!
Next year Tony and his inheritance of continental disapproval may have faded from French and German minds.
Next year, if we can cobble together a group of long haired, reasonably slim aging hard rockers capable of lasting through such an energetic number and carrying off black leather and studs. Accompanied by some leather (if scantily) clad young, operatically voiced women. A sort of a cross between belly dancers and biker chicks.
Next year, if we can craft an anthemic European power ballad that can stir the eastern European sole.
If we can lay our hands on enough fireworks...
Then maybe we will be able, once again, hold our heads high in the halls of Europe – and - who knows, apart from funding a huge chunk of the cost of the contest, possibly even have to go to the additional expense and bother of hosting it too! What more could you ask?
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