“Guardians of Knowledge and Public Interest”: A Reply to Our Critics

The article is the response to a reply to the authors′ earlier article (in this journal) criticising the UK audit standard‐setting process. The reply claimed the article failed to prevent a balanced review of the “due process”, was not clear as to what constitutes “public interest”, and contained misrepresentations and errors. This response counter‐claims the errors and misrepresentations and accuses their critic of unwillingness to discuss the politics of accountancy regulation (compounded by his previous position as an official of the Auditing Practices Committee). These issues are discussed: clarifying the original article and dealing with the criticism point by point.