Does the UK suffer by not taking part in Eurovision semi finals?

The first Eurovision semi final takes place this evening. As one of the major contributors to the European Broadcasting Union the United Kingdom is guaranteed a place in the final, but do we miss out by not taking part it the semis?

A paper presented at the Annual Conference of the British Psychological Society last month suggest we do, if only to a small extent.

Diarmuid Verrier from Sheffield Hallam University found that taking part in the semi-final stage of the contest can result in an entrant moving up the leaderboard by one place.

He pointed out all of the winners since 2004 - barring Germany - have appeared in the semi-finals, which indicates 'mere exposure' to something they have seen previously can result in more positive feelings towards it.

"Although political voting and, hopefully, a decent tune will always play a part in how Eurovision contests are decided, this research suggests a third influence in the contest," he added.

However, political voting probably plays a larger part in the final outcome, which is also bad news for the UK. As Terry Wogan once put it: "We've invaded too many countries and everyone hates us."