Really weird hearing the Eurovision Song Contest being discussed, on an american podcast a week after the event. Sir Terry Wogan was knighted for his work for charity, I assume - he is the main presenter of the annual Children In Need telethon. Wogan, incidentally, is Irish and apparently only became a British citizen so that his Knighthood would become real, instead of honorary. As for Eurovision, Wogan has always mocked reciprocal voting, which was very common in the days before televoting. Uk and Ireland always helped each other out, as did Greece and Cyprus and the nordic countries. However, he now believes that there is full on conspiracy, and is getting grumpy.
There is some debate as to whether political voting is on the increase. Eastern counties, particularly those of the former USSR and former yugoslavia are percieved as voting for each other in large blocks. It has been suggested however that most countries vote for their neighbours and countries to which they are traditionally allied, and the results are simply skewed towards these 2 areas because there are so many more countries. It has also been suggested that Eastern european countries take this far more seriously and put forward their biggest stars - in the West, the show is generally seen as camp spectacle, and serious acts are reticient to take part, except maybe in an arch, mocking way (hence Sebastien Tellier)
The 'big four' countries, UK, Spain, Germany and France, have however done very badly in recent years, the UK especially. This is possibly more political - the massive increase in participants in recent years have led to 2 qualifying rounds. These four countries do not have to qualify (for financial reasons) despite doing very badly, and this seems to have led to some resentment.
Woth noting that Greece and Finland have both won in recent years, and although gerographically eastern, both would be considered 'Western' european nations, with no particluar ties to their eastern neighbours.
