I think I might be missing the point of all this. Simon Cowell/The X Factor does not control viewing figures or record sales. We, the public do. If millions of people choose to watch the X Factor every week then buy the single after it then that song getting to number 1 is merely a reflection of what the public wants?!
In answer to Geordies question, the last time we got a good christmas single was 2003, The Darkness!!

Mr Hankey the Christmas Poo is a classic

What odds are we looking at now then? Rage are favourites on Betfair but I can't find prices with any high street bookies online.

The best post ever on the whole silly affair, yet the idiots who want to get RATM to number cant see the point you just made. Maybe if they had more than one braincell between them they might.

Suspended on Betfair now with reports suggesting Rage have won. It's not officially confirmed for another couple of hours but is looking virtually certain according to quite a few websites now. Made up.

Why are you made up??....It's no more a valid Xmas christmas number 1 than the X Factor effort.....Ultimately, it won't change a single thing in the music industry.....Those who got caught up in the whole RATM campaign will go back to moaning about how music was so much better when they were youngsters, and Simon Cowell will continue to make money out of the mainstream public who thrive on the dross he markets.

As I said before, just ignore the man and his puppets, instead, buy and listen to the music that YOU like (Not what some silly campaign tells you to like and buy) and leave the sheep to enjoy their pointless chart countdowns, which became irrelevent a long, long, time ago.

Some People are missing the point of the whole campaign.

The comment that HJ Bird [merry Christmas to you] made is a valid one ,but the RAGTM protest is about the future of the music industry as a whole not just Christmas which some feel passionate about
No one is forcing people to buy RAGTM, it is about offering an alternative to the X factor which which people can rally around . We live in a democracy it's a protest song ! You chose to buy it or you don't.

Bests wishes of the season to you all.

Rage Against The Machine is the music that I like.

I have to say too I only found out a few minutes ago who this Joe fella is and what a soppy Geordie get. He seems to think he's a better vocalist than Zack de la Rocha too and although I haven't heard him I'm 99% certain that he is not.

Rubbish.....'The future of the Music industry'?????..... ....What total nonsense.

The charts, for this is what you are protesting about, have always simply been a tool for record companies to make their profits....Yes, the make-up of them have changed, especially since the introduction of the 'download', but the charts have always been a reflection of the general people's tastes....This so-called protest is an absolute joke, driven by people who have some nonsensical idea that the charts were once a credible existance, full of credible music...

Cowell and his puppets aren't my cup of tea, but rather than be suckered into the hype, which is all this campaign has done, I will simply continue what I have always done and simply listen to, and buy, the music that I want to listen to and I will ignore the charts, which in the main for myself, have always been in a shocking state, and certainly were a long time before Cowell and his X Factor machine got involved...

Thanks angry pirate love you too
Even though may disagree on the cause is it not better to get passionate about something rather than be apathetic about everything ?

Sure, but why get upset about something that has always been as it is now.....A survey of the general public's musical tastes??

You are sadly mistaken if you believe that Simon Cowell and X Factor have single handedly manipulated the charts....All that has happened in recent years is that music has become more accessable to more people, thus, they have become even more so than ever, a reflection of the general public's tastes.

........but there is a difference, as the sheer audience numbers for the X Factor gives any record featured on it an overarching advantage over all other options. There has always been 'showbiz' music in the charts, as you say, and I admire Simon Cowell's ability to make money out of re-tread of a TV format that has been doing the rounds since Opportunity Knocks. However, no previous TV show had this sort of power, so it does undoubtedly distort the Christmas No 1 race.

Who exactly is bothered by who wins the race for the Christmas No 1? If a "classic Christmas song" was released this year and only made No 2 it would still be the song that will get belted out of every shop/pub/bar/office for years to come instead of this xfactor bloke.

Not that the charts are relevant to anything except who sold the most singles in a week anyway.

No, it doesn't distort anything...it reflects the power of TV.

Over the years, Nick Berry, Benny Hill, and a whole lot more chart toppers have used the power of TV to have big hits....Cowell is simply another one of those, only in a more polished way.