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Reader question: Please explain this sentence: “Unlike my critics, I belong to no political party and have no axe to grind.” My comments: In other words, “I” am objective, unlike “my” critics who are all biased. To elaborate: When the said “I” speaks about the political parties, he has no other purpose than just speak out his mind. He wants to tell the truth, what he feels as truth at any rate, rather than to attack one party or support the other. In other words, he has selfish motivations. He has nothing to gain or lose by criticizing or praising either party, supposing we’re talking about America here, which has two parties, one Republican, one Democratic. All because he has no axe to grind – he doesn’t run for public office and probably does not even bother to vote. So he can be trusted for his words, and more importantly, his lack of sinister intentions. If he had an axe to grind, on the other hand, he might very well be saying one thing and meaning another. He would criticize one political party excessively and unfairly simply because he supports the other. “To have an axe to grind” is the idiom to master here, and a good one it is too. It is American in origin and the “axe” is spelt “ax” in America. Well, that’s just the American way – they like to keep spellings simple. Anyways, according to American Heritage (yeah, even Americans have heritage) Dictionary of Idioms: | 
