Eurovision Cold War: Eastern Bloc is ganging up on us, warns Wogan

An Eastern European entry wins the Eurovision Song Contest - while the UK comes nowhere.

While few would claim that Scooch's dismal effort deserved to bring the trophy back to Britain, mutterings are growing about "biased" voting by the Baltic, Balkan and former Russian states.

And they are being led by Terry Wogan, whose cynical commentary has become as much a reason for watching the show as the songs themselves.

The veteran broadcaster has warned that Western European nations might soon become "fed up" with their rivals' tactics and could even decide to pull out of the contest altogether.

Saturday night's event was won by Serbia's Marija Serifovic, who became the fourth winner from the former Eastern Bloc since 2001 with the ballad Molitva (Prayer), pipping Ukraine and Russia.

Serbia's Marija Serifovic (pictured) were the Eurovision winners

Scooch came joint second-last with their rendition of the camp Flying The Flag (For You).

Crash landing: British group Scooch's airline song Flying the Flag came second last

It is now ten years since the last winning act came from these shores, when Katrina And The Waves swept to victory with Love Shine a Light.

Wogan, 68, who has presented the BBC's television coverage of the event since 1980, has long mocked the "neighbourly" voting trends in the annual contest.

And even before this weekend's event, he was complaining that the problem is getting worse.

"It's a pity it's not about the songs any more," he told BBC Online.

"There's a definite Baltic bloc and a Balkan bloc and they've been joined in recent years by a Russian bloc. We won the Cold War but we lost the Eurovision."

In a column for yesterday's Sunday Telegraph, the Radio 2 DJ also accused Scandinavian countries of "blatant partiality", and suggested that to counter the biased voting trends the rest of Europe should form a "Western Bloc".

Former Radio 1 DJ Mike Read agrees, telling BBC Breakfast yesterday:

"This voting for the neighbours is just a nonsense now. You could sit there last night and you knew who they were going to give the 12 points to, every single time."

He conceded, however, that Flying the Flag was "such a weak song" and described the choreography as "appalling".

Despite having picked up a mere 19 points - 12 of which came from Malta - Scooch singer Caroline Barnes remained upbeat.

"I have to say I laughed so much I cried at the voting," she said. "I don't want to say it was expected, but you know what Eurovision is like."

A BBC spokesman said the audience for Eurovision peaked at 10.9million on Saturday night.

"There's no sign that the British public are losing interest. The voting is all part of the fun. There's absolutely no question of the BBC pulling Eurovision."