Neighbour voting not to blame

I always find it fascinating to read what people have to say after the Eurovision Song Conest every year. As I had expected, many of the letters on the letters page criticise the "political voting" in the Eurovision Song Contest - that is why Malta came last, and that is why Malta should drop out of the competition. I find it very difficult to agree with these views.

Let's be realistic - yes, countries do vote for their neighbours. Moldova and Romania are always going to give each other points. Cyprus and Greece are always going to give each other 12 points. Croatia and the former Yugoslav countries are never going to receive the famous "nul points". It is, however, very clear that political voting has no bearing whatsoever on the winning song - or even the highest songs in the competition.

Look at last year - Malta came second in the competition, even though it had no neighbouring countries to throw points at it. Why? Because it was a decent song and a superb performance from Chiara. The UK did not do poorly this year because of political voting - our song was simply weak. As for Malta, the song was very good, but a performance with flat notes is never going to win the Eurovision.

Russia and Bosnia-Herzegovina are often accused of doing well through political voting - yet both countries had to take part in the semi-final this year, as did FYR Macedonia and Turkey. Croatia would have done too, had Serbia-Montenegro not withdrawn from the competition. Last year Greece, with only one real neighbouring country, won. The winner of the competition is no foregone conclusion.

The same thing happens year in, year out - people here have said that Finland only did well because of Scandinavian block voting. How can this make sense when the highest position Finland has ever reached was sixth prior to this year. This was the first time Finland had qualified from the semi-final! If people were only voting for their favourite country and not their favourite song, then surely we would have the same top three countries every year, but we don't.

The truth is, a song and performance need to be strong to win Eurovision, and this year, neither the UK nor Malta managed it. Finland's outfits were gimmicky, and the huge amount of press attention they received beforehand must have helped them, but the song was strong and the performance was captivating, in my humble opinion.

Malta should not drop out of the competition - you have had some fantastic songs and brilliant scores in recent years, and I know I am always excited to see what musical offering your beautiful country will bring to the competition.