Austin Mitchell

Austin Mitchell

Austin Vernon Mitchell (born September 9, 1934 in Bradford , Yorkshire ) is a British Labor Party politician and was a member of the House of Commons for the constituency of Grimsby from 1977 to 2015 .

Biographical

Austin attended Bingley High School and the Universities of Manchester and Oxford .

From 1959 to 1967 Austin was a lecturer at the University of Otago and the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. Here he published a study on a New Zealand by-election ( Waitaki Votes , 1962). Then he became a Fellow of Oxford University . His journalistic career began in 1969 with Yorkshire TV . Mitchell also worked as a presenter and interviewer for the British Broadcasting Corporation and British Sky Broadcasting , for example in the program Target as a counterpoint to the conservative politician Norman Tebbit .

Austin joined the Labor Party during the Suez Crisis in 1956 . The 1977 death of MP Anthony Crosland required a by-election in Grimsby . Austin Mitchell ran for Labor, winning by 560 votes.

Member of the House of Commons

From 1977 to 2015 Austin Mitchell represented the constituency of Grimsby without interruption in the House of Commons . He had his best election result in 1997 with a share of the vote of 59.8 percent. In the general election of 2015 , he did not run for reasons of age and Labor politician Melanie Onn was elected as his successor. He describes his positions as follows: “Austin was initially on the right wing of the Labor Party, but in recent years it has moved so far to the right behind him that he is now the extreme left. Because he believes in equality, public spending, state interference in the economy and markets, and full employment, which are among the tenets of socialism, he is considered a dangerous revolutionary. "

Austin's diverse interests have led to his being or is a member of numerous committees and working groups, for example the Finance and Administration Committee, the Agriculture Committee, the Environment and Food Committee, the Budget Committee, the Labor Party working groups for economic policy and for Suffrage reform, and in the non-partisan working groups for fisheries and for the media. He also chaired some committees and working groups. He is currently the chairman of the working group for social housing. As chairman of the photo working group of members of parliament, he organizes an annual exhibition.

In the eighties, was Austin Mitchell in the Parliamentary Labor Party first "whip" ( Whip ) and then economic spokesman.

He is particularly interested in the economy, housing and, as a Member of Parliament from Grimsby, fishing, of course. In 2002 he even changed his name temporarily to Austin Haddock ("haddock").

The European Union's fisheries policy could also have something to do with the fact that Austin Mitchell, as a Eurosceptic, is hostile to the EU . This becomes clear again and again in numerous speeches and articles as well as in his weblog .

However, good relations with the European neighbors are important to him. Among other things, he has received German school groups in the lower house several times and discussed them with them.

Others

Austin has published numerous books and articles on topics such as socialism, Labor Party politics, the UK Parliament, financial, tax and economic issues and problems of the fishing industry; but it also deals with Yorkshire, its people and its language. He is also co-editor of an illustrated book Parliament in Pictures ( ISBN 978-0-500-01959-7 ). He comments on current politics in his weblog .

Austin received the New Zealand Cross of Merit in 2001 and the Order of the Falcon in 2015 for his commitment to the interests of New Zealand in Great Britain .

Austin has been married to his second wife, journalist and writer Linda McDougal, since 1976. From this marriage come a son and a daughter. He has two daughters from his first marriage.

Remarks

1. ↑ http://www.library.otago.ac.nz/exhibitions/unipress/unipress_hand_list.pdf
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Welcome to the Weblog of Austin Mitchell ( Memento from December 31, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ http://www.linc2u.com/grimsby/sites/Austin-Mitchell.htm
4. ↑ Parliamentary Election Results in Grimsby ( Memento of July 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
5. ↑ http://www.debretts.com/people/biographies/browse/m/1914/Austin+Vernon.aspx Austin Mitchell, Esq, MP ( memento of July 30, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
6. ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/2290283.stm
7. ↑ http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Austin+Mitchell&x=0&y=0
8. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/global/2007/jul/24/austin.mitchell