In this week’s Newsletter we review the latest betting odds and fan polls, get all excited about EuroClub and hopefully share a little bit of our webspace for other people blogging away on the internet for the next fortnight.
Our Robertson’s Reflection column this week assess the fallout from the release of the EBU’s ‘draft’ flag policy. Rather than making the Eurovision floor experience better, Ben Robertson argues it might very well do the opposite and lead to more political flag use.
Firstly the wording on rainbow flags is tedious. They are permitted, but ‘not be used as tool to intentionally make a political statement during the show.’ Yes we all know what that means, but where in a running order are you going to be able to stop that? What practically can happen in policing a crowd of thousands in a 30 second postcard window? One wonders if those flags will be ‘tolerated’, to use the official phrase, when we arrive in Moscow or Sochi next May. Also the inclusion of the European Union flag alongside the gay-pride rainbow might trigger by itself a collective thought across the fan community. Expect a few hundred UK fans now considering to raise the EU stars high during Joe and Jake performance who wouldn’t have thought of it before. Thanks for the tip.
As always, read the Newsletter in full for the complete column, and watch out for a few more editions of the Newsletter coming out over the next two weeks.