In the future only five countries (last years winner, UK, France, Spain and Germany) will qualify without going through two semi-finals.

www.esctoday.com/news/read/9349

The rule changes are a response to the almost universal negativity about neighbourly/diaspora televoting. I have never agreed with this. The Eastern European nations are doing better than the rest because they put in more effort, show some originality, use their top stars and do not plough out the same tired dated old rubbish like we are doing in the West.

The EBU are also considering bringing back an element of the old style jury format, albeit a tiny element, if you read the above piece.

Still, as a huge fan of the contest, I do like the way in which the head man, Mr. Stockselius, is unafraid to keep making changes to the format.

Certainly agree that there is block-voting and maybe this will help things (even in the Eurovision Dance Contest there was block-voting).

However the bigger picture is that we need to start picking better songs to represent us, since Jessica Garlick in 2002, our efforts have been dire. Gemini 2003, James Fox 2004, Javine 2005, Daz Simpson 2006, awful Scooch 2007.

Despite block-voting, a song that's good will win the competition.