{"id":4476,"date":"2026-09-21T09:58:48","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T09:58:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/21\/the-house-angus-macdonald-if-youre-active-in-faith-youre-more-likely-to-have-a-moral-compass\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T09:58:48","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T09:58:48","slug":"the-house-angus-macdonald-if-youre-active-in-faith-youre-more-likely-to-have-a-moral-compass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/21\/the-house-angus-macdonald-if-youre-active-in-faith-youre-more-likely-to-have-a-moral-compass\/","title":{"rendered":"The House | Angus MacDonald: “If You’re Active In Faith, You’re More Likely To Have A Moral Compass”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n 11 min read<\/span>20 September<\/span>
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Entrepreneur, papal knight and now Liberal Democrat backbencher Angus MacDonald tells Sienna Rodgers about his colourful life and why Westminster needs more business brains<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Angus MacDonald is described as a \u201crare politician\u201d by a colleague who compares him, approvingly, to a red squirrel.<\/p>\n

Papal knight, self-described Gladstonian liberal, Sandhurst graduate \u2013 it might be easy to cast the 63-year-old as an anachronistic holdout against the grey tide of modernity in his Highland fastness. But MacDonald is also a highly successful entrepreneur, a multi-millionaire who has set up and sold a string of businesses and brings to Parliament a sharp eye for the market.<\/p>\n

He confesses he was shocked by how many MPs end up at Westminster after a career within the state\u2019s fold, untroubled by the bottom line when he beat the SNP to represent Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire, part of which was once Charles Kennedy\u2019s patch.<\/p>\n

While expressing relief that Ed Davey has \u201cstopped the stunts\u201d (although this is contradicted by the leader in his own House interview), MacDonald is not especially critical of his party\u2019s figurehead. He does, however, think the Liberal Democrats need to expand their offer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to broaden our range. Everybody knows we\u2019re the party of health and social care, but I think we need to be the party of small business, and the party of education. If we had a three-legged stool, we would be a real contender to be a party in power.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut my opinion is to be taken lightly because I don\u2019t have a clue what I\u2019m talking about,\u201d he adds, in what The House comes to recognise is typical playful \u2013 and disarming \u2013 self-effacement.<\/p>\n

MacDonald, it is fair to say, is full of surprises, cheerfully admitting for example that he is a former donor to the Conservatives and Labour. The MP says this was in aid of resisting Scottish independence, though his attraction to the Conservatives went deeper than that.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father was a Conservative. But Boris Johnson and Liz Truss knocked any affection for the Conservative Party I might have had,\u201d he says. Could that change again one day, if the Tories were to move back to the centre? \u201cI would say I was a compassionate capitalist, and I don\u2019t think the Conservatives have that compassion.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, what does MacDonald want to achieve in politics? His answer is immediate and comes with a printed copy of a report he has just written, titled Remote Scotland: Spiralling Towards Unviability?.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose living in remote Scotland face an unparalleled, difficult challenge of almost survival,\u201d he explains. \u201cCosts are 30 per cent higher. Incomes are 10 per cent lower. Public services are much less good, and the stopping of EU structural funds has been catastrophic. We are now generating the electricity needed for Great Britain from the Highlands, but it is offering minimal jobs, no legacy housing and almost no community benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n

High housing, energy and food costs, health and social care deserts, a lack of childcare, poor transport and digital connectivity are all analysed and assessed as \u201cserious\u201d or \u201ccritical\u201d in his paper, complete with constituent testimonies. Current government policy, MacDonald argues, simply does not cater for this area as one of Europe\u2019s most sparsely populated regions. The demographic crisis is particularly acute here and getting worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say the West Highlands has the most severe demographic problem of the whole United Kingdom. Many of the schools have half the school roll they had 20 years ago.<\/p>\n

“Obviously, people are having less children, but we have young, dynamic families leaving the area because of the education offering and the fact you get paid less and the costs are higher.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does he have any thoughts on the challenge of explaining our declining birth rates? \u201cAs you\u2019ve discovered, I\u2019m not very bright,\u201d he replies, \u201cso I never have the next thought.\u201d He suspects social media is a key culprit.<\/p>\n

MacDonald is especially interested in economic policy, for example lobbying to raise the VAT registration threshold for small businesses, though admits he has not got very far with this.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say what\u2019s most shocked me is the complete lack of business knowledge and interest throughout the whole of Parliament, and that the people who are coming into Parliament are very often people who have been in the public sector, or charities, or consultancy, or have been just in politics,\u201d he complains.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very frustrated because I go around seeing everybody about my policies and nobody\u2019s interested.\u201d<\/p>\n

What is perhaps more attention-grabbing about MacDonald\u2019s politics is his approach to cultural issues. On the face of it, one might call him a social conservative, though he prefers to characterise himself as a Gladstonian liberal. He is also, notably, a Catholic \u2013 to the extent he has been awarded a papal knighthood, for service to the church \u2013 which must have informed his opposition to assisted dying.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think 11 of the 72 Lib Dems voted against assisted dying.\u201d (It was 11 at Second Reading and 15 at Third.) \u201cI hope there\u2019ll be more than that next time round. Politically, it\u2019s enormously useful for me \u2013 my voters are thrilled with my moral stance,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

While some advocates of Kim Leadbeater\u2019s assisted dying bill were critical of those who objected on the basis of faith, others pointed out that we all get our moral compass from somewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose I get guidance on a belief that politicians should have a moral compass, and I think if you\u2019re active in faith, you\u2019re more likely to have a moral compass. That\u2019s going to rile a few people up,\u201d MacDonald smiles.<\/p>\n

He has certainly angered some Lib Dem members online with his dissent on trans issues, having made clear he rejects self-identification on gender and is concerned by the puberty blockers trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have had absolutely no pushback on my beliefs from anybody,\u201d he says, referring to Lib Dem MPs, \u201ceven though I know that three or four of them are 180 degrees opposite of all my views.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe great thing about liberalism is it\u2019s quite a broad church. The fact is, I\u2019ll vote against the whip on things I care about. I made it very clear when I joined that I wouldn\u2019t be whipped on moral issues,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

London-born MacDonald was raised in a famous Highlands climbers\u2019 pub, Clachaig Inn, which his parents ran. \u201cIt was a great place to grow up,\u201d he recalls. \u201cIt was back in the days when pubs were very vibrant places, so we would sometimes have 300 people in the bar. For a rural pub, it was humming.\u201d<\/p>\n

He started serving pints aged 10, he says. And drinking them? \u201cSurreptitiously or legally?\u201d the MP replies. He cannot remember but does confess to \u201cminesweeping\u201d \u2013 finishing abandoned drinks.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019m very frustrated because I go around seeing everybody about my policies and nobody\u2019s interested<\/p>\n

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His parents met in New York, where his father was working in the whisky industry, before his American mother was brought back to the Highlands \u2013 a \u201chuge shock\u201d given the wet weather and isolation. \u201cShe lasted 30 years, which is 29 and a half years longer than anybody thought it would last,\u201d before going back to the States.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to a Catholic boarding school down south in order to get some discipline knocked into me, and then my parents ran out of money, so they moved us to a day school in Edinburgh, Edinburgh Academy,\u201d says the MP, enthusiastically tucking into his ice cream (it is a hot day in Westminster \u2013 though apparently, he eats it every day of the year).<\/p>\n

\u201cBut a) I didn\u2019t do well academically, and b) I met a girl, and I pursued her to Uruguay. She was Uruguayan, but she was doing a one-year exchange in Scotland. I thought, \u2018She\u2019s the one for me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Leaving aged just 16, he spent a year in South America \u2013 until her family \u201cmade it clear that I should move on\u201d. In the meantime, his entrepreneurial ways had begun: via a bus venture for tourists headed for Machu Picchu in Peru, he made \u201ca fair bit of money\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came back on the QE2, the liner. My father met me in Southampton, and he said, \u2018It\u2019s the army for you, laddie.\u2019 I went to Sandhurst, extraordinarily, then did a short service commission, which was the making of me.\u201d<\/p>\n

MacDonald repeatedly emphasises just how lacking he was in academic ability \u2013 a surprise to him, given his father was an Oxford scholar. \u201cHe\u2019s brilliantly intelligent. He was never a money-maker. He couldn\u2019t quite understand why his children were not academic, and I don\u2019t know the answer. But I\u2019ve had many MBAs and PhDs work for me, and I seem to have been able to hold my own.\u201d<\/p>\n

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So, off the young MacDonald went to the Falklands, post-ceasefire (\u201csimilar to the Highlands: very remote, tens of thousands of acres of barren land, very strong winds \u2013 I don\u2019t remember being unhappy there at all\u201d), then Northern Ireland. He was 18; the youngest in his platoon of 30.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou grow up very quickly. You have to gain respect; you have to earn respect. It doesn\u2019t come with the job. I think it was a good lesson in hard work, humility, working well with people, getting results without shouting. It\u2019s a very consensual relationship between the officer, the sergeant and the men.\u201d<\/p>\n

MacDonald soon left the army \u2013 again, to pursue romance, having met his now-wife in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had already decided that the girl I was with was the one for me. She actually decided I was not. There\u2019s a bit of a theme coming here! She did end up marrying me, but it took quite a while.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always knew that the army \u2013 it\u2019s a difficult family life. You\u2019re away from home a great deal, and you live in poor-quality housing, in a part of the world where your family don\u2019t necessarily want to be. Also, I knew I wanted to go and work in the Alps as a ski guide,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did that for a winter and met a chap in a chairlift who offered me a job in finance. Obviously, you just keep going round until they offer you a job and can\u2019t get off.\u201d<\/p>\n

The role kindled in him a love of business. Since then, MacDonald has founded multiple companies \u2013 including a data product for investment managers, a newspaper and a recycling firm \u2013 and sold them for a cumulative \u00a3150m.<\/p>\n

MacDonald\u2019s sons Archie, Jack and Jamie have followed the same entrepreneurial path (soap, kombucha and the family business of supplying spare parts for wind turbines, respectively). A fourth son, Donald, is the exception; he is \u201cone of the Neets\u201d, struggling to work in finance after gaining a 2.1 in theology at Edinburgh, so has just requalified.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully, he\u2019ll get a job now. But the big alarm to me is so many of our kids are studying a subject which will not help them get jobs in Britain, and I think we have to wake up and smell the bacon,\u201d says MacDonald. Did he advise Donald against reading theology? \u201cI\u2019ve always made it clear to him that he\u2019s mad for studying that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The MP is most proud of his philanthropic projects. In the 90s, he created the \u2018Caledonian Challenge\u2019, a 54-mile sponsored walk from Fort William to Loch Lomond that raised \u00a314m over 20 years, for which he was awarded an OBE.<\/p>\n

More recently, he read an article about how to transform a market town and spotted an opportunity to enhance Fort William, which struggles despite being a tourist centre (mostly a draw for hikers; also for Harry Potter fans who want to visit the nearby Glenfinnan Viaduct, which carries the Hogwarts Express in the films).<\/p>\n

It recommended a town centre cinema with a restaurant \u2013 so, that is precisely what MacDonald created. He bought the old town hall, put a 100-seat restaurant and two-screen cinema in it, and parked a red Lotus sports car inside for good measure. It is now award-winning and owned by the community.<\/p>\n

As an MP in the Highlands, MacDonald has a difficult schedule. He leaves home on a Sunday afternoon to catch the sleeper train down for parliamentary business starting a day later, often can only make it home for one night a week, and travels up to four hours to work at the far end of his constituency even when he is there. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say my wife is a fan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite this, and his reflection that \u201cin retrospect, I would\u2019ve been very happy to be an MSP\u201d, he is happy with the decision to take a seat in Westminster.<\/p>\n

\u201cQuite a lot of my friends are 65 and bored and not contributing and not fulfilled. They haven\u2019t helped other people. They\u2019ve done well, clipped the coupon and not benefited,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe very strongly that if you\u2019ve been lucky in life, you should give back. It would have been easy for me to continue my life of comfort in the Highlands of Scotland, writing novels and enjoying the social buzz, but I don\u2019t think that is me.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough I find the commitment to Westminster a real challenge, I enjoy it a great deal, and do feel that people who can make change should do it rather than take the easy option.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

11 min read20 September Entrepreneur, papal knight and now Liberal Democrat backbencher Angus MacDonald tells Sienna Rodgers about his colourful life and why Westminster needs more business brains Angus MacDonald is described as a \u201crare politician\u201d by a colleague who compares him, approvingly, to a red squirrel. Papal knight, self-described Gladstonian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4477,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}