Sunday, May 25, 2008

How Eurovision mirrors the EU

So the annual farce of the Eurovision Song Contest is over and with it the usual humiliation of Britain. And as the bandwagon rolls on it comes as a timely reminder of just how strikingly similar the Eurovision and the EU are.

For a start, we went into the latest "round" with high hopes and expectations and left with our tails well and truly between our legs and desperate to try and make something positive out of the crushing defeat. Sound familiar?

Just like the EU, Britain funds the Eurovision disproportionately - and gets just a few crumbs thrown back in return.

Just like the EU, we labour under the belief that we can "reform" Eurovision from within. The last time being when they claimed that tele-voting will mean an end to the bloc voting of the past. It didn't and we can't reform either Eurovision or the EU from within.

Just like the EU, there was this crazy belief that the more nations that joined the better the prospects of Britain "winning" as we'd be able to form "alliances" within which would bolster our cause. It doesn't work in Eurovision and it won't work in the EU. Only if our cause matches that of the prevailing bloc can we get anywhere - and even then it will be a secondary thing.

Just like the EU, from which Britain can learn little about democracy, there is little we can learn from Eurovision about creating popular music. When was the last time a Serbian artist topped the charts all over the world? It doesn't happen. Just as there are no EU nations who can match our history of democracy - or even come close!

The only difference is that we don't have to give up our national sovereignty, historic rights and liberties to get humiliated in the Eurovision Song Contest.

We do to be subjugated by the EU.

Why do we still pretend otherwise?

No comments: