A thought has just struck me.

So many people seem to think that the panel somehow colludes as if it was a committee of a dozen people in a smoke-filled room.

Are these people unaware of what actually happens?

The voting all takes place by email, and with 170 people all voting in isolation there is amost no opportunity for a fix at that stage.

Technically it would be possible for the vetting committee to ignore the nominations and votes of the panellists and announce different results, but there is no evidence for this.

Please understand that this is an open vote by a lot of informed people. It's NOT juke box jury, and it's NOT the x factor. It's something else, which it does work pretty well.

If you want a more informed debate on the real issues, see the BBC's own thread on the topic.

Tom Bliss