[riverrock]

It’s heartbreaking to see how many youngsters fall down on these mega-bucks TV quiz shows where a smattering of Latin would at least allow an educated guess .

Youngsters?
By 1950 75% of UK schools had abandoned latin, and by 1970 it was no longer a requirement to study medicine or law. Its really only taught in a fairly small number of private schools.
So you're really talking about most people under the age of 60...

[Sooty25]

Youngsters?
By 1950 75% of UK schools had abandoned latin, and by 1970 it was no longer a requirement to study medicine or law. Its really only taught in a fairly small number of private schools.
So you're really talking about most people under the age of 60...

and now we have a shortage of Doctors....... but there never seems to be a shortage of lawyers!

[PeteSpencer]

So you're really talking about most people under the age of 60...

It’s all relative :

To me that group are youngsters

Any road up, you’re rather making my point for me .

[Paultheparaglider]

Any road up, you’re rather making my point for me .

You mean QED. Which youngsters may not know means quod erat demonstrandum.

[Mr Bags]

You mean QED. Which youngsters may not know means quod erat demonstrandum.

The gerundive - still giving me nightmares after all these years!

[kanga]

When I was in Tirana a couple of years ago, I hardly saw anyone who couldn't speak fluent English.

.. as I, too, had found in visitor-facing milieux the previous year, in Tirane at least. Elsewhere, and among older people and those not normally dealing with foreign visitors, it was less so. In any case, it was sometimes difficult to persuade people that I really wanted to practise my (by then rusty) Albanian (or, in the South of Albania, Greek [1]).

[1] <linguist nerd continued drift >

Greek is an official language in the South, with education in the medium available up to degree level. This is very different to how the analogous Albanian-speaking minority in the adjacent parts of Northern Greece are treated by that government; a source of considerable resentment. Despite the greater privileges in Albania, though, I did see bilingual placename and other official roadsigns with the Albanian names and words graffiti-d over.

Western [now 'North'] Macedonia is analogous. Albanian is an official language in the adjacent border areas, but some bilingual roadside signs had the Macedonian graffiti-d over. In Southern [North] Macedonia abutting Greece, there are the equivalent issues, with the same resentments.

<factual and I hope acceptable further drift into edge of politics ; Mods please edit out if you wish >

Despite the 'settlement' of the bilateral country name dispute, Greece vetoed the accession of Albania and Macedonia to the EU, for which both are clearly on normal terms eligible, and of Macedonia to NATO; of latter, however, Albania is already a member. </>

</>

[Dave W]

You mean QED. Which youngsters may not know means quod erat demonstrandum. :wink:

Not "Quite Easily Done", then? :D

[tomshep]

We could have put the rolling stones on and still got no points. My partner opined with her usual uncomprehending anger "We should just get out of it all and leave them to it."
I explained that we had actually done exactly that, which was the reason why we had no points. I take issue with the whipper snapper Wilcox. Waterloo might be well known but Gigiola Cinquetti's "Si" was the song that ought to have won ten years after she last won the contest and Norway's 1985 winner is a good one as well.
The greatest highlight has to have been the 2001 commentary.
Natasja Crone Back & Søren Pilmark have no cause to feel aggrieved but were ludicrously offended byTerry Wogan who cannot be replaced but Norton is growing nicely into the role. The whole event is for fun and poking fun at and anybody who finds the humour offensive should grow a pair, shut up and never open an Asterix book for fear of apoplexy.
Eurovision is wonderful and should be supported by anybody with a greater sense of humour than sense of hearing. However many points we are awarded.

[Propwash]

Personally I think the Eurovision Song Contest is now abysmal, and has been for at least two decades. It seems now to have become a deliberate parody of what it once was in the 1950's and 60's. However, I realise that, for whatever reason, millions of people seem to derive pleasure from it. As I am not one of them I don't watch it now. My only real objection is that as one of the 5 largest financial contributors, it is UK taxpayers money (via the BBC licence fee) that largely funds it. The time has surely come to find sponsors instead and if it is still really relevant that wouldn't be difficult.

Those attributing politics to the low UK score, however, should accept that we have been declining as a contender for many years:

We have come 1st 5 times, the last in 1997
We have come second 15 times, the last in 1998.
In the last Millennium we were only outside the top 10 on 3 occasions.
In this Millennium we have only reached the top 10 twice.

Of the 4 occasions on which we have come last with nul points (the subject of this thread) 2 were well before any threat of Brexit (2008 and 2010) and 2 after the referendum (2019 and 2021) so perhaps we should simply accept that we are just too poor at either writing, performing or selecting at the very low level of musical quality required to win in today's contests.

(With thanks to Wikipedia for the records).

PW

[riverrock]

The UK ( and I say UK as United Kingdom Independant Broadcasting are also members) pay less to the EBU than they pay to various individual presenters (although they don't publish precisely how much they pay).

EBU provides a lot more than Eurovision - it is the coordinating body for lots of TV across the european region, allowing groups of broadcasters to buy rights to content, news syndication, technology improvements (etc).
Eurovision is mainly paid for by the host broadcaster and country.

[Colonel Panic]

I had never heard of the EBU before, but having scanned the wiki article I would vote for winding it up pronto. A veritable car crash between a gravy train & a feed trough if ever there was one.

[riverrock]

It also provides the European Championships, coordinates Olympic broadcast rights across Europe, syndicates the overnight classical music that you can hear every night on BBC Radio 3, coordinated and pushed RDS on FM radio and DAB, organised the standards behind TV PVRs and program guides (so you don't need a different TV in every country), coordinates news gathering and sharing between broadcasters (so a BBC journalist could be using facilities provided locally by a host broadcaster).

It is also non-political - setup between the different broadcasters, and is run pretty efficiently, with a separate commercial arm. The non-commercial part of the organisation is actually pretty small.

[Pete L]

I wouldn't class it as completely non-political - not all of it's members are European and there's at least three whose presence attracts controversy.

[riverrock]

@Pete L - I suggest that if they started picking & choosing members based on something other than geographical area, then that WOULD make it political.

Membership is for broadcasting organizations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area, as defined by the International Telecommunication Union, or are members of the Council of Europe.

None of that "cancel culture" here.

[Dave W]

Membership is for broadcasting organizations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area, as defined by the International Telecommunication Union, or are members of the Council of Europe.

M'lud, Exhibit A: Australia