Eurovision Song Contest

Spent a Sat evening doing what a large proportion of the population were doing - watching the Eurovision song contest (while I tried to complete the Indy's super sudoku - but not sure that this part is mainstream).
The only reason this is worth watching is to listen to the Wogan commentary but am wondering whether even he is finding it difficult to create entertainment out of complete mediocrity. Last year's poor performance was blamed on our stance on Iraq but what about this year? Have we really got so few friends or is British music in a different league?

Gone are the days of Norway persistently scoring "null points". Today the Scandinavians vote for fellow Scandinavians. Ditto Eastern accession countries. Even Greece and Cyprus seem to have patched things up and vote for each other and I am left wondering where that leaves poor old Britain.

The real enigma is Israel. I know they have been performing in the contest since I was at school and even then I wondered why they were considered part of Europe. Please e-mail me if anyone can explain this but I was left wondering whether there would eventually be a need to invite Palestine. There have been stranger ways of trying to create international unity.