I can’t believe how devastated I am that Ben was kicked off last night. Admittedly, I don’t feel it was his best performances – but he was still 3000 times better than the gurning Scouser. (Is Ray lining up toothpaste sponsorship? Or perhaps tissue sponsorship after his murdering of You’ll Never Walk Alone.. I’m not surprised he cried, I was too.. nothing to do with any ‘emotion’ he showed in the song, more that a travesty was being perpetrated in front of my eyes)

I’ve linked to a couple of my favourite Ben tracks here: See Ben Singing One More Time

Perhaps its time for the hordes of tone deaf teenage voters to be removed from the equation? Or at least for their faddish effects to be toned down. Its time that the ‘judges’ were just that – impartial judges, with no tie to the mentoring process (from what I’ve seen, I doubt they actually do that much mentoring to begin with). Their comments SHOULD count for something – perhaps something similar to Strictly Come Dancing, where the judges votes count for half of the final vote – hopefully that would have prevented the ridiculous situation of the MacDonald Brothers being in so long – or for Ray being through to the final two.

Leona sang her heart out last night – probably the best I’ve ever seen her sing, and Simon Cowell must be rubbing his hands in glee at the thought of her being his million pound contract winner. Sharon must be bewildered and amazed that her star talent has gone out (although hopefully this could be a good thing, especially if the rumoured interest from EMI pays out, and Ben doesn’t now have to suffer a year’s ‘management’ from Simon, whose track record with X Factor winners isn’t really that great). I’ve still got my fingers crossed from two weeks ago, when Louis promised he’d get the Eton Road boys a record contract.. and I still maintain that the finallists (if Simon hadn’t done a shock two act eviction) should have been Ben, Leona and Eton Road.. At least I got one of the finallists right (makes a change)

I can’t begin to imagine just how smug Mr Cowell will be feeling this morning – guaranteed a winner, with both of his ‘rival mentors’ left high and dry – lets hope that something with integrity can be dragged out of this whole sorry affair, and that Leona emerges as a true winner.