By now you may have seen the headlines: a fresh outfit called the Centre for a Better Britain (CBB) has bolted from the stables, and it sounds rather a lot like… well, us. The Great British PAC.
Imitation, they say, is the sincerest form of flattery. If that is true, then we have been very flattered indeed.
Let me be plain about it: the Great British PAC got here first. For some time now we have been knitting together a national coalition — the elite, certainly, but also the energetic. Our purpose is no small thing. We are after a national renaissance.
Across the past year our work has run from the bottom up: a people-powered organisation with genuine grassroots muscle, real legal firepower, and a bold policy platform that is already moving. We are not penning white papers to gather dust on a shelf. We are repealing, reviewing and assembling a government-in-waiting, complete with a legislative blueprint ready for Day 1 of 2029. A state of the nation document and a grassroots-style manifesto are both in progress. No tinkering at the margins. No waiting for anyone's permission. And no allegiance to any single party — the only people we answer to are the British people.
We have taken counsel from the sharpest minds. We have built bridges right across the patriotic right. And, yes, a fair number of the names in that Times piece trumpeting the new organisation are people we have spoken to. Some of them we welcomed into our circle and invited onto our board. These things happen.
So when I spoke this morning to one of them — their Chairman, James Orr — I said what needed saying: if your mission is to save Britain, marvellous. But do try not to photocopy the homework and pass it off as your own. That said, if they are serious, our door is open. As I put it to him, we want what is best for Britain; if you can help deliver it, let's talk. Who knows — we might even work together.
But let us be honest about what the CBB actually is: a partisan vehicle for Reform. That seems to be its entire focus — perfectly fine in itself, yet a long way from what its Chairman was publicly arguing for only two months ago.
And here is a political reality. Reform badly needs a coherent, unifying philosophy. Even some of its senior figures concede as much. If this new vehicle supplies that intellectual backbone, good. Political parties cannot survive on passion and protest alone. They need ideas, depth and direction.
Should Reform also democratise properly, move past personality politics and adopt a serious political philosophy, the whole country will be the better for it. Bravo.
But here lies the crucial difference between them and us: the Great British PAC is tied to no single party. We are proudly cross-party, ready to work with anyone who puts the United Kingdom first. That, we believe, is where unity will be found in 2029 — and it is precisely why we are pouring serious time and talent into building the infrastructure of revival across the entire patriotic, so-called “right”: cross-party, cross-regional, cross-sector.
We are a proud, broad patriotic church. We are not a front for any one party or politician. Yes, we are in conversation with Nigel's team — in fact Nigel was among the very first people I spoke to at length about the PAC. But we are also engaging with Kemi's team, Rob Jenrick, Suella, Priti, Rupert Lowe, Nick Tenconi, the DUP, the TUV, and more besides. Our reach runs deep into the United States, with major PACs and donors, and deeper still into the shires, cities and high streets of the UK.
While others may murmur about “radical structural change,” we are already delivering it. Our Great Repeal Programme is live. Substantial groundwork is already laid. Our policy platform has been built from the ground up — crowd-sourced from the very people other think tanks merely claim to represent. We have a judicial review under way on Chagos. And our country directors? Real fighters. Boots on the ground, delivering county by county.
We are not glancing left or right. The blinkers are on — racehorses charging for the line. However many new stables spring up, this horse is already running.
Perspective matters. Four years is a lifetime in politics: long enough for governments to fall, movements to rise, and the people to take back control. While others produce glossy donor decks, we are building the future. We do not care what colour rosette anyone wears today. What matters is that, by 2029, 650 patriots are ready to lead. We are united by a love of our country.
And in the meantime, we are not merely planning. We are protecting. We do not need to win every lawsuit. We just need to tie this dreadful Labour government in knots — and we will.
The Great British PAC does not just think. We act.
We are also refreshingly upfront and straightforward, because when the people are your boss, that is the only way to be.
The CBB may insist they are not “simply a Reform think tank” and that “it doesn't matter whether the cat is black or white so long as it catches mice.”
True enough. But the cat should at least be honest about whose house it lives in.
Watch this space and join us: www.GreatBritishPAC.com/JOIN
By Claire Bullivant, Great British PAC CEO