I'm trying to think how anyone sufficiently involved with the folk world on a professional basis to be asked to be a judge might not, one way or another, have a vested interest in some of the nominees. If you have the qualifications to be a judge, you can't be entirely disinterested.

However I take comfort from knowing that, in my experience, people in the folk world are almost invariably open, honest and trustworthy. I also know that most people feel passionately about the music, and I'm quite sure the majority of judges do their best to perform their duties conscientiously.

I also take comfort from the fact that with a pool of 150 judges any cronyism, favouritism, bias or outright corruption by a few of them is likely to be cancelled out by the majority. Of course, if you believe in conspiracy theories you'll believe they're all involved...