Two years ago, I came forward with evidence of Dominic Cummings and his campaign committing the largest breach of campaign finance law in British history. Evidence that led to his campaign being found guilty of breaking the law - he is still under investigation by the NCA.

I worked for Vote Leave. A decision I regret. But one that was followed by years of trauma through whistleblowing and led to a major operation in my life to help with investigations, authorities & organisations to combat far right extremism.

I worked under Dominic Cummings. I was young, naive & impressionable. Blinded by the brilliance of all these famous politicians who I had seen on my television back in Pakistan. Suddenly I was in this world. And I was being recognised for my efforts with migrant communities.

You can read up on the details & my journey on google. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jul/21/shahmir-sanni-nobody-was-called-to-account-but-i-lost-almost-everything

We have all seen the disaster of Boris Johnson’s government. We all know the violence that the Conservative Party has committed over the last decade. But I don’t want to speak to that now, for I have many times before. I want to take this moment to explain the danger.

The danger of not just Dominic Cummings, but of politicians like Priti Patel, of pundits like Darren Grimes & Tom Harwood, of fake think tanks like the IEA & it’s stooges. And the best way I know how is to speak honestly of my experience.

They are not evil people. They are not devoid of the feelings that people like you and I feel. They have families, friends, they party, they have loved ones. But extremism & radicalisation are subtle & sinister for that exact reason. That they do not show themselves so easily.

But they ARE a lost people. They have spent so many years of their life seeing the world from a perspective that is defined and reiterated by the older, more prominent Conservatives, elders that are defined by a totalitarian identity rooted entirely in preservation.

Preservation of tradition, and a refusal to embrace change & innovation. Particularly innovation in regards to the way that we behave & live. It is why they are so vehemently against any idea of justice or fairness. It is a threat to their lifestyles/status quo.

So blinded they are by this desire to maintain things for the way they are that they have forgotten the beauty of risk, of joy, of justice & of equality. Because when the systems in place are threatened, they see it as an attack on themselves.

And social media has amplified this threat. The louder the voices of marginalised communities, the more angry & scared they have become. So much so that their only salvation becomes the maintenance & sustaining of power.

Which is why when I say white supremacy remains the bedrock of our problems it is because political cycles in this country have always been rooted in the preservation of English/British identity so much that it has caused catastrophic economic shifts: Brexit to name one.

Dominic Cummings and his allies have realised the power of using this preservation/identity rhetoric as a tool to mobilise and more importantly radicalise much of the public, and even more importantly, themselves.

I had convinced myself that what I was doing was right. I was convinced that Brexit was the best way to liberate my communities from the clutches of euro-centrism. And to build a new Britain. Obviously not.

In the same way these people have convinced themselves that what they are doing is right, but not just politically right, divinely right. They are not justifying it through profit, they are justifying it morally. I was absolutely consumed by this once.

They would reiterate the same things again and again. They would use every tool in the book to make me feel like this was the best thing to do for the British public. And they would do the same to themselves. It took me a lot of self reflection & distance to unlearn it.

And the only reason I could unlearn it was because like many people of colour I had learnt to perform, and sometimes I became confused about what was a performance and what was a reality. Assimilation was my friend & my enemy.

But. I was able to get out. And unlearn and do the work. And unfortunately white people remain a victim of their own curse. So they can not see that they are being pulled by ideologies & beliefs that are rooted in a history of violence. And I made it my goal for two years...

To help rid ALL of the virus that is an inherrent faith in the market, in profit & in preservation. I failed ofcourse because there is no way for someone that looks like me to enact that kind of structural change. I was naive once again.

I say all this because I want to try and help people understand that extremism can be found even in British politics. That a rejection of the law, and of integrity & or morality is an extremism well practised in Britain, but not recognised for it is not bearded & in caves.

And that it is easy to get trapped in that extremism, when that extremism is the status quo. Dominic Cummings is not the big evil villain, he is a symptom of a system that is inherently corrupt. And if we are to hope for any real change...

It starts with treating these people as ideological extremists, so distanced from the realities of people outside of Westminster, that their actions become a danger to the very fabric of democracy & equality & justice.

Slowly but surely they are realising the power of social media, and expanding their practise of repeating the same thing over and over again to drag everyone into their profit-centred, individualised mindset.

We have become too comfortable in ‘balancing’ the debate. I think you can not balance violence with peace. I think that you can not balance hatred with love. One is dangerous, the other is not. One harms people the other does not.

They do not understand justice, because justice for them comes through the attainment of power & a retention of tradition and the status quo. Make of this what you will. I don’t have a solution. Just that Cummings must be treated as an extremist. And his posse as violent.

I have more to add but I don’t want to consume myself, today has triggered much trauma for me and I need to rest.

All I can say is that each day I find it more difficult to understand myself what the solutions are. And all my heart does is reflect on the work of people like Jinnah, Mandela, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. Malcolm X. And it is work that calls out the oppressor & balances both

Nonviolence & violence in order to enact real structural change. My fear is that apathy is such a powerful condition of white supremacy that we can not achieve that without pain. But I know that that pain is oftentimes inflicted on people that look like me first.