Just under a week away, Andy Abrahams sat alone in the Eurovision green room, listening to the whoops of the Russian entry and sullenly puffing his way through a pack of Superkings, occasionally craning his neck towards the TV to see if he'd had any more points. Poor old Andy's slice of 90s soul-funk got about as many points as it deserved, however much Wogan wants to bleat about politics, but he seems a lovely fella, so I felt sorry for him. Only two nations voted for the UK - Ireland, naturally, and San Marino. A nation that most Britons probably thought was a pizza manufacturer awarded us six whole points. The BBC have rather prematurely declared San Marino a new ally, when in all likelihood it was a few ex-pats and tourists making the most of the country's tiny population. So what else is San Marino about, other than giving sympathy Eurovision points? Well, for starters, it's got a weird name:
San Marino's full name is The Most Serene Republic of San Marino.
It might sound like a nation invented by a nutty dictator, but San Marino has been around for a very long time - it was founded in 301 AD, allegedly by Marinus, a Christian stonemason. Until Nauru declared independence in 1968, it was the world's smallest republic, and claims to be the oldest constitutional republic in the world. San Marino also arguably had the world's first democratically elected communist government, a balance many nations have been trying to achieve for years. I guess it's easier to achieve political stability when there's only 30,000 of you.
It may be tiny and, as much as it pains me, pretty insignificant, but San Marino has a lot to be proud of, most notably remaining independent throughout Garibaldi's unification of Italy. Napoleon III also refused to invade it, describing it as a 'perfect republic'. It may have been this laid-back attitude that stopped Napoleon III reaching quite the same imperial heights as the original Napoleon. I like the cut of San Marino's jib - it's got a cable car going between its largest towns, and issues its own highly collectable postage stamps and coinage. Despite it's chequered history, the 61km and highly serene republic of San Marino will perhaps always be most famous for scoring against England after just 8 seconds - still the fastest goal in the history of the World Cup, and let's hope it stays that way.
Incidentally, just to draw a line under the whole political voting at Eurovision hoopla, I'd like to point out that Greece came third with an American singer - so maybe the 'special relationship' isn't the reason why the UK keep coming last. Maybe it's stuff like this...
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