I’m old enough to remember when the Eurovision Song Contest was an annual bit of fun. We’d all gather round the TV to have a friendly laugh at how cringeworthy other countries’ music was and how exciting it was when the likes of Brotherhood Of Man and Bucks Fizz brought the trophy back to Britain.

I’m even old enough to have watched Katie Boyle became a national treasure for presenting Eurovision a record four times in the 1960s and 70s, the Italy-born polyglot awing us with her perfect poise and language skills.

But those days have gone. Today, Eurovision is little more than a yearly display of political prejudices, couched in the format of a song contest.

It’s true that votes have always fallen in line with national alliances – Cyprus and Greece always give each other good marks, for example – but today it is on another level.

The Beatles in their heyday would not have been able to win Eurovision now, for one simple reason: they are British. It’s time we pulled out of Eurovision and stopped giving credibility to this ludicrous farce.

We are so used to hearing the phrase, ‘United Kingdom, nul points’, that it has lost its capacity to shock. Not only did we not get a single point from the audience vote in any of the 37 countries who vote in Eurovision, no fewer than 20 of the official juries also gave us a big fat zero, including the likes of Sweden, the Netherlands, France, Germany and Belgium.

That, surely, had nothing to do with the artistic merits of the song or the singers – after all, yesterday it emerged that the UK’s act, Remember Monday, had signed a £1million record deal with Andrew Lloyd Webber, a showbusiness impresario who knows a thing or two about performing talent.

No, it had everything to do with that simple fact that the talented trio are British. Brexit may have been years ago, but the rest of Europe still hasn’t forgiven us for pulling the rug from underneath them.

Israeli entrant Yuval Raphael was booed while she sang (something the producers covered up by muting the TV feed)

Protestors hold a banner and Palestinian flags during a demonstration against Israel’s participation prior to the Eurovision final

The UK’s act Remember Monday finished 19th and received zero points from the public vote

If you doubt that it’s all about politics and prejudices, consider this: The audience voting doesn’t start after the songs but before any of the competitors have even sung a note.

Imagine a World Cup in which the result was decided before either team had come onto the pitch. That’s what the audience gets to do in Eurovision. Many people vote not on what they have heard but on what they think about the various competing countries.

Sometimes we might agree with this attitude to voting, such as in 2023 when Ukraine won because so many wanted to send a message of support to Kyiv after its invasion by Russia.

Something similar happened last night when Israel topped the audience poll – both here in the UK and, overall, across all of Europe.

But the official juries could barely bring themselves to give Israel any points at all. It was only when the public vote was fed into the scores that Israel leapt into the lead.

In the event, it was overtaken by Austria with the very last vote but it’s obvious what was going on: European viewers were expressing their support for Israel as a nation.

That was especially poignant given the context. In the stadium where this year’s Eurovision took place in the Swiss city of Basel, Israeli entrant Yuval Raphael was booed while she sang (something the producers covered up, by muting the jeers).

Protestors inside the arena even tried to storm the stage and red paint intended for Raphael hit a crew member instead.

Eurovision winner JJ from Austria holds up the trophy. He won with the song Wasted Love

Ncuti Gatwa was due to present the UK jury’s marks on Saturday night but withdrew at the last minute, reportedly because Israel had not been booted out

Outside the venue there had been days of demonstrations and the Israeli national security council warned Jews in Basel not to wear kippahs or any other visible sign of their identity.

Raphael was only there on Saturday because the organisers stood up to a concerted campaign to have Israel banned from the competition.

She wasn’t heckled because her song was bad, but because of who she is: an Israeli. And not just any Israeli but a survivor of the Hamas massacre at the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, when she only survived by lying still for eight hours under a pile of dead bodies.

Not that this cut any ice with the actor Ncuti Gatwa. The current Doctor Who was due to present the UK jury’s marks on Saturday night but withdrew at the last minute, reportedly because Israel had not been booted out.

I happen to think it was wonderful that the audience vote stuck two fingers up to these people, but that’s not the issue. The real point is that a supposed song contest has become instead a focus for political grandstanding and protests.

This aspect of the night was also highlighted by a remark made by Graham Norton, the BBC’s Eurovision commentator. After Israel was pipped to the post by Austria, he said the organisers would ‘heave a sigh of relief for not having to have a Tel Aviv final next year’ – as if it was obvious that it was a huge comfort to everyone that Israel didn’t win.

A once charming spectacle, Eurovision has become a grotesque forum for the display of political prejudices. If other countries are happy to be part of that, that’s their business. But we should say thank you for the fun years but sadly conclude that it’s now time to bid au revoir to a lamentably discredited institution.