My interest levels when it comes to Eurovision has varied over the years. For a long time I only enjoyed the voting element of the show, waiting to see who would end up with nil points. More recently I’ve enjoyed the over the top campness of the performances and have found it to be a million times more fun and entertaining than the normal UK Saturday night TV offering.

I did not watch this year’s show but the ‘non-political’ event which they say is all about ‘uniting’ people with music has proven once again how much of a political event it is. I remember when the politics was simply about whether neighbouring countries would vote for each other. These days the politics is far more controversial.

Russia were excluded from the competition in 2022 due to its invasion of Ukraine, with Ukraine subsequently winning the competition. Despite calls from various directions for Israel to be excluded due to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, they were allowed to compete and came fifth. Individuals using the competition to vocalise support for the Palestinians were condemned by the events organisers. Fortunately people still found a way to make their views known.

As for the result, I’m shocked that the UK got ‘nil points’ from the public vote but I’m angry that the UK public vote chose Israel to get our top score of 12 points.

Just like we need to stop funding war crimes, the UK needs to stop funding this political event. Paying our way to the final would be called cheating in any other competition.