Physicists uncover Eurovision biases: Voting analysis reveals European cliques and feuds.
Neil Johnson and his co-workers at the University of Oxford, UK, think that the significance of the Eurovision Song Contest goes deeper than music. They regard it as a barometer of European nations' feelings about their neighbours, and thus as a testing ground for compatibility as the creation of a European constitution looms.
Dutch No looks irreversible: Less than two weeks before the Dutch referendum on the EU Constitution, pollsters see a rejection of the treaty as irreversible, with a row over the Eurovision song contest apparently boosting the "no" camp. [...]
Following the elimination of the Dutch contender Glennis Grace in the semi-final of the contest, Dutch popular media showed their dissatisfaction by blaming the lost race on "Eastern European" countries favoring each other.
