Mitchell, Austin

born 1934 A British Member of Parliament and commentator on accounting and auditing issues. Mitchell, who represents the constituency of Grimsby in the north of England, is a high profile personality in the *critical accounting movement in the United Kingdom, through his journalism, media appearances, and monographs. He is a trustee of the *Association for Accountancy and Business Affairs. His written output is prolific. In addition to numerous articles in the professional and academic press, he has coauthored several monographs, including Accounting for Change: Proposals for Reform of Audit and Accounting (Mitchell et al., 1991) and Auditors: Holding the Public to Ransom (Cousins et al., 1998). One of Austin Mitchell’s main areas of interest is *regulation of the external auditing profession, and (as can be gauged by the titles of his monographs) he is something of a thorn in the side of the British external auditing establishment. Further reading: Cousins et al. (1998); Mitchell et al. (1991); Mitchell et al. (1998); Mitchell and Sikka (2002) Web site: www.austinmitchell.org