The JSPrice Perception

Eurovision in 2011 was a success and people were hoping that Azerbaijan 2012 would have a similar effect. The nation won last year in a fairly tight battle meaning its capital, Baku would host Europe's biggest musical event of the year. How did the contest go this year? It has certainly been interesting both in, and out of the Crystal Hall. Before the competitors competed in the semi-finals, there were fresh allegations of corruption within the Azerbaijani government over their treatment to the residents there. The location of the Crystal Hall had forced people out of their homes in order for the building to be reconstructed with very little compensation. There were calls for some countries to boycott Eurovision but it never happened and 26 nations went head-to-head in a battle which produced some fascinating, yet on occasion, bewildering results. If frequent readers to this blog would remember, I critically rated each country in last year's Eurovision out of ten and then co...

I have promised to send the second part of this mini-series of my prediction review. It has been a busy week and in the last 48 hours, I have been busy celebrating Chelsea's fantastic victory over Bayern Munich. The Champions League final in Munich on Saturday night reflected on what has been a sensational season. The previous part of my prediction review showed that League Two and the Championship will be closer than ever next season and with York City's return to the football league after their victory over Luton Town on Sunday at Wembley proves that 2012/13 will be a great season. The final part of this mini-series will show how I performed in the Premier League and League One. However, with the third tier not concluded yet as its play-off final is the following Saturday, it is still a convenient time to show you how I did. League One I am definitely the male Mystic Meg of League One - well sort of. My top four matches reality's top four. Charlton Athletic ended the...

Recovered from yesterday? Neither have I. The Premier League season concluded yesterday in the fashion that nobody really expected. I don't want to delve in too much on how brilliant top flight until the second part of this mini-series of blog posts but for those who have been faithful readers to "The World as I see it", cast your minds back eleven months ago when the football league fixtures were announced for the 2011/12 season. I immediately thought I would be Jonathan Cainer for four blog posts and see how well, or not so well I'd predict each football league table. Here is how I did: League Two  (Image: BBC Football) It is very clear of the predictions I have right and the others completely wrong - more of the latter. One which is clearly different is Plymouth Argyle. I underestimated the situation there and should have realised that being in the red financially can affect the morale of a football club. They almost suffered a triple relegation after going ...

Francois Hollande (Image: Telegraph.co.uk) It has been another interesting month in Europe. On one hand, there is a sense of optimism and restorations of pride while plenty of uncertainties and frustration on the other hand. Nothing is simple in life and Europe is finding their suitable path towards prosperity the harder way. This might sound obvious now but will the next year or so show that the Euro currency defy all odds and survive? If the currency does survive until its bitter end, its premature death may have been delayed as France has a new President. Nicolas Sarkozy has lost his place at the top to a Socialist, Francois Hollande. The 57-year-old's party have not been in power since 1988. It has been so long, the last time they led a parliament, the Berlin Wall still exsisted. There is no wall to literally tear down but metaphorically, there is one which needs to go away. Hollande has the biggest task in modern French politics. People on the 6th May chose him to ...

It has been another week where the people of United Kingdom complain that things are not going their way. One of which is a football related matter but first, I’d like to discuss the situation at the government. Last week, both Rupert and his son James Murdoch were interrogated by QC Robert Jay and Lord Justice Leveson in the latter’s inquiry into press standards. The Murdoch Empire, News Corporation have been much in the news in the last couple of years because of the phone hacking scandal orchestrated by their paper News of the World which closed last year after getting caught. Understandably both Murdochs attended the inquiry as if it wasn’t for them Leveson wouldn’t find himself in this situation. The three days where both father and son turned up to in London from their so-called busy schedules in New York and opened up to their accounts of the phone hacking situation which caused a lot of distress to many victims of such crime. Rupert especially apologised for not closing...

This year, I have been left impressed by the quality of television programmes in the UK. Each channel has ensured to increase their ratings by either improving the shows they have currently, or creating original and captivating broadcasts. Take ITV for example, David Hasselhoff entertained us in last year's Britain's Got Talent but his replacement David Walliams, in addition to the return of Simon Cowell has brought their faithful viewers back into watching the programme. I am hoping to see more of Walliams next year as he is not only funny, he has genuine talent. He writes children's books and swam through the River Thames for charity - and I am sure he'll do more in the near future to "wow" us. Nonetheless, ITV and Cowell have this initiative every year to attract over 10 million every Saturday night since Pop Idol came to our screens a decade ago. But now the BBC have finally thought of something spectacular and at the same time dominate all the headlines a...

In recent blog posts, I have a habit of writing about topics because of a recent documentary I watched. On this occasion, this trend continues and today, the topic I am to discuss is something I've written about in the past. Here's a clue - last year, I wrote about Richard Keys and Andy Gray moments after they were caught off camera blatantly discriminating assistant referee Sian Massey just because of her gender. I recall saying that they mustn't judge on people on a job that they couldn't do better in and forgot to mention they deserved to be punished despite being really popular "role models" at Sky Sports. They were deservedly kicked out of Sky even if they forcefully apologised and Gray admitting earlier this year that he considered killing himself over the situation. Let's just say that what they said ruined their career, despite the pair moving to Talksport radio. Moreover, I recently watched "Sexism in Football?", a BBC documentary pr...