As national humiliations go, it was hardly Dunkirk. But the UK's failure to secure a single point in this year's Eurovision Song Contest induced an unusually wide-ranging bout of hand-wringing by cultural commentators, musicians and even a cabinet minister.
The dismally tuneless performance of Cry Baby by the Liverpool duo Jemini was blamed variously on technical problems, the poor quality of the song and even Britain's stance on the war with Iraq. The arch disdain traditionally accorded to the contest merely served to heighten the sense of embarrassment about the country's worst result since the competition began in 1956.
That the United Kingdom, second only to the US in the proliferation of musical output, could not even manage to pull in a few points in a glorified talent show - won by Sertab Erener of Turkey and watched at its peak by 10 million people in Britain - led to calls for the BBC to take the song selection more seriously.
Louis Walsh, a judge on the ITV talent show Popstars and a veteran pop band manager, said: "It's like somebody went into Boots, found the first person they saw behind the counter, asked them if they could sing and they said 'no', but they picked them anyway.
"The thing was just a disgrace, the worst song I have ever heard, and so out of tune they deserved to be last. Britain has some of the best singers in the world but that was a joke."
The debate touched even the culturally austere confines of the Sunday political talkshows. Jeremy Corbyn, an anti-war Labour MP, told GMTV's Sunday programme: "It could be that the song was just truly awful and deserved it, but I think there's actually probably a deeper story here. People across Europe are fed up with Britain's over-close relationship with the United States."
The song's author, Martin Isherwood, the head of music at Sir Paul McCartney's "fame school" in Liverpool, also blamed the result on anti-British sentiment. "I think politically we are out on a limb at the moment. As a country I think we paid the price," he told the Up All Night programme on BBC Radio 5 Live.
Even the weary performers appeared to agree when they arrived back at Heathrow airport yesterday. Chris Cromby, 21, one half of the duo, said: "With the countries across Europe, something has rocked the boat. We don't think it was fair we came last because we gave the performance of our lifetime."
It fell to a cabinet minister to make the case for the defence: Peter Hain took time out from defending the ministerial position on the draft European constitution to deny the result could be laid at the government's door. "Maybe it wasn't a good enough song - although it sounded good enough to me," he said, steering a diplomatic course in an interview on LBC 97.3 in London.
There were suggestions that there should be a change in the way in which the UK's entry is chosen. Currently, the song is selected by viewers of the Song for Europe contest, organised annually by the BBC. However, the programme does not attract nearly as much attention as similar shows such as Pop Idol; last year's relatively successful Spanish entry was sung by the winner of its version of Fame Academy.
Boyd Hilton, the TV editor of Heat magazine, said a similar method could be adopted in Britain. "I don't think we should leave it to a few people watching BBC1 on a Sunday afternoon."
Marius Bratten, the creative director of Saturday night's Eurovision programme, blamed the failure on Jemini's performance. Speaking from Riga, in Latvia, where the show was held, he said: "I actually liked the song. It's one of those things that happens with a live show. When performers are put in front of 160 million viewers that's when it counts."
He dismissed suggestions that the poor performance was due to technical problems. "There are always these explanations or excuses," he said.
Next year, to accommodate the rising number of countries who want to take part, the show will be split in two, with a qualifying round and a final on consecutive nights. Britain, as one of the four biggest contributors to the European Broadcasting Union, which organises Eurovision, gets a guaranteed place in the final despite finishing last this year.
Meanwhile, Jemini embarked on an intensive period of promotion for their losing record, which is released today. With Britain's famed capacity to favour the underdog, their failure may yet be the key to future success; coming last may prove much more lucrative than finishing third or fourth.
The group's female member, Gemma Abbey, said: "Nul points - there you go, maybe that's what we should change our name to."
Euro trash
Trying to pick the song most likely to attract the dreaded nul points has become a favourite game for Eurovision aficionados
· Norway are, of course, the nul points champions. The most notorious of their four nul-pointers is Jahn Teigen, who in 1978 performed a song called Mile After Mile. His routine included doing the splits in mid-air while snapping his braces. Teigen called his Eurovision failure "the proudest moment of my life" and anticipated it would make him a star. It did not and he now owns a brewery
· The nul point pioneer was Fud Leclercq, representing Belgium in 1962, with a ditty called Your Name
· Finland has notched a hat-trick of no scores over the years. In 1982 Kojo performed a song protesting about the building of a nuclear power station while hitting himself over the head. Nobody voted for him
· In 1983 Spain's Remedios Amaya performed bare-footed à la Sandie Shaw. In contrast to Shaw who won in 1967 with Puppet on a String she failed to trouble the scorers
· In 1994 Lithunania's Lopsine Mylimai failed to pick up a point. The Guardian's reviewer said he had "the smallish, gruff voice popularised by Phil Mitchell in EastEnders"
· Portugal have twice scored nul points, most recently in 1997 when singer Alma Lusa was backed by male dancers in sinister wrap-around sunglasses and Mao-style collars
· In 1998 there was a stark contrast between the Israeli winner, the transsexual Dana International, and the Swiss entry, Gunvor Guggisberg, a middle-class tap-dancing champion. Guggisberg left with nul points
· Germany was thought to have a nul point cert in Guildo Horn, a flamboyant caped warbler five years ago. But after a campaign led by a DJ, Germans flocked into neighbouring countries to get round the rule forbidding viewers from voting for their country's own entry. He came in a creditable seventh
· Additional reporting by Steven Morris