Paul Marshall: The Lib Dem years

Looking back it’s pretty crazy that a highly religious and highly aggressive corporate raider would ever get involved with the Lib Dems. For many years, however, Paul Marshall played a vital role bankrolling the party and he tried to construct an entirely new narrative for us based on a low tax, small state agenda you’d normally associate with Republicans.

That's Matthew Pennell commenting on an article on Marshall and his media ambitions in Saturday's Guardian.

The article reminds us how well connected was Marshall in Liberal and Liberal Democrat circles as a researcher, parliamentary candidate. funder of The Orange Book and Centre Forum (a one-time Lib Dem think tank) and member of Nick Clegg's inner circle in the Coalition years.

Despite all that influence, it's hard to disagree with Matthew Pennell's verdict:

if you look at Marshall’s own set of policies and priorities via his mouthpieces you’d struggle to see his imprint on the party.

I remember The Orange Book as disappointingly dull - I reviewed it for Liberator when it came out - and I also remember how much I disliked its chapter on family policy. This was a collection of Daily Mail cuttings put together to argue that many parents had no idea how to bring up their children.

Paul Marshall was happy to fund politicians who would oppose intervention in big business, but he was all in favour of interfering in the lives of voters.