The landmark speech of David Cameron about tackling Islamic extremism and the lack of integration in the UK was helped shaped by his British Asian aide, Ameet Gill.
Ameet Gill (32), is a former speechwriter and was promoted as the Director of Strategy at 10 Downing Street after the General Election. He is considered as the Prime Minister's most trusted and esteemed advisor, having joined the team nine years back.
Gill's parents arrived from rural India as teenagers. His mother, Parminder, had previously lost everything in the process of fleeing from Pakistan to India during the partition. After arriving in the UK, she spent 35 years working in a cardboard-box factory, while Ameet Gill's father, Darshan, worked in a car-parts factory.
The couple had three daughters before the birth of Ameet. Although they had a very humble income, they still managed to send one of their daughters, as well as Ameet to private school. He also went on to study History at Oxford University on a scholarship.
Although Ameet Gill grew up in Banbury, Oxford, he admits that to struggling with his own ethnic identity in the past.
Gill said, “I understood these issues of identity and cohesion because I know what it is like to grow up in Britain dealing with them. Sometimes you feel British, Sometimes you feel Indian, sometimes you feel nothing, and if there was an ideology such as Islamic State around for others like me when I was a teenager, I've no doubt some of my friends might have been attracted to it.”
It could be said that Gill's personal experience while growing up in Britain helped formulate the Prime Minister's speech on communities feeling alienated, as well as the “failures of integration.”
