MPs Ask: Why Does Britain Keep Scoring Zero at Eurovision?

Jan de Vries · 2026-09-18

Britain's Eurovision results have been rough for over a decade. Now, Members of Parliament are stepping in to figure out what's going wrong. It's not just about the music. It's about how the UK picks its entry, promotes it, and competes on the European stage. And with the EU Inc proposal shaking up how European startups incorporate, there's a bigger conversation happening about Europe's global competitiveness. ### The Eurovision Problem: More Than Just Bad Songs Since 2010, the UK has finished in the bottom five six times. In 2021, James Newman got zero points from both the jury and the public. That's not just a bad night—it's a pattern. MPs on the Culture, Media and Sport Committee want to know why. They're asking whether the BBC's selection process is too insular, whether the UK is out of touch with European tastes, or whether Brexit has damaged relationships with other countries. > "We need to understand why the UK consistently underperforms when we have one of the biggest music industries in the world," said one committee member. ### What This Means for European Startups Here's where it gets interesting. The same questions about competitiveness, collaboration, and relevance apply to European startups. The EU Inc proposal aims to make it easier for startups to incorporate across Europe, but the UK is now outside that framework. - **Access to talent:** Post-Brexit visa rules make it harder for UK startups to hire EU talent. - **Funding gaps:** UK startups lost access to EU-wide funding programs like Horizon Europe. - **Market fragmentation:** Without a unified incorporation system, scaling across Europe is harder than ever. Just like Eurovision, it's not about one bad performance. It's about systemic issues that need fixing. ### Could the UK Rejoin the EU Inc Party? The EU Inc proposal is still in early stages. It would create a single set of rules for company incorporation, making it easier for startups to operate across borders. The UK isn't part of it—but that doesn't mean UK startups can't benefit. Some are already setting up holding companies in EU member states to access the benefits. Others are pushing for the UK to create its own version of EU Inc to stay competitive. ### The Bottom Line Whether it's Eurovision or startup incorporation, the UK faces a choice: keep doing things the old way and hope for a different result, or adapt to a changing Europe. MPs investigating Eurovision might seem trivial, but the underlying question is serious: How does Britain stay relevant in Europe? For startups, the answer might be to look beyond the UK's borders—and for policymakers, to learn from the EU Inc proposal before it's too late.