Eurovision 2019: Does ‘RIDICULOUS’ voting sytem means UK can NEVER win?
A 2013 YouGov poll showed Britons have the strongest conviction that “it’s all political”. Even former Eurovision commentator Terry Wogan called the voting “ridiculous” and eventually stepped down from his role in 2008. The UK is especially affected by political voting because countries tend to vote for those they border with, leaving the UK – as an island – rather isolated.
The only countries Britons can generally depend on for votes are Ireland and, curiously, Malta.
According to a 2018 Telegraph analysis, there are three main voting blocs – the Balkans, the former Soviet Union and Scandinavia.
Sometimes the voting is especially transparent: for example the relationship between Russia and Belarus, and Greece and Cyprus.
Cyprus has awarded almost three times as many points to Greece as to any other country and Greece has given Cyprus twice as many points as anyone else.
Meanwhile, Belarus has awarded more than twice as many points to Russia than to any other country, with almost a third of Belarusian points going to either Russia or Ukraine.
