The pursuit of impartiality can make people do mad things.

A number of journalists I know abstain from voting in order to maintain it. This has always struck me as a revealingly tribal way of viewing the world: Is the only critical judgment they make about politics whether to tick a red or blue box at election time? Inevitably, if you raise children, look after elderly relatives, drive, use public transport, rent, have a mortgage or a portfolio of properties, you reach conclusions about whether your country is run well or badly.