It has been suggested ealier in this thread that people connected with agents, record companies etc shouldn'y be nvolved with choosing recipients of awards. I would have thought that as longs as things were done opnely, there isn't any reason why not. People running folk record labels, in my expeience are among the most lnowledgable people around(which is hardly surprising). OK, so they might vote for thir own people. Well, of course they would, they wouldn't have chosen yo put out records they thought were crap, would they? (Not often, anyway).
   It would obviously be a huge mistake, and corrupt in the extreme, to let just one record label, or one agent, in on the act. But I would have thought a good range of record company people would be a very good basis for a jury.