Forced out following outrage over his views:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-51538493

On Mon, Feb 17, 2020 at 10:53 PM Phil Gasper <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>
> https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/feb/17/no-10-refuses-to-comment-on-pms-views-of-racial-iq
> <https://www.theguardian.com/politics/boris-johnson>
> No 10 refuses to comment on PM's views of racial IQ
>
> Move comes after hiring of new adviser who said black people have lower
> average IQs
>
> Rowena Mason <https://www.theguardian.com/profile/rowena-mason> Deputy
> political editor
>
> Mon 17 Feb 2020 12.40 GMT Last modified on Mon 17 Feb 2020 13.22 GMT
> [image: Boris Johnson and Andrew Sabisky composite]
> Boris Johnson and Andrew Sabisky. The PM’s adviser has suggested the use
> of ‘enforced contraception’ to avoid the creation of a ‘permanent
> underclass’. Composite: EPA/BBC
>
> Boris Johnson’s spokesman has refused to say whether the prime minister
> thinks black people have lower IQs on average, or agrees with eugenics,
> after No 10 hired an adviser with highly controversial views.
>
> In a tense briefing with the media, the prime minister’s deputy official
> spokesman declined several times to distance Johnson from the views of his
> adviser, Andrew Sabi
> <https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/feb/16/tory-aide-wants-enforced-contraception-to-curb-pregnancies>
> sky
> <https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/feb/16/tory-aide-wants-enforced-contraception-to-curb-pregnancies>,
> who has suggested “enforced contraception” be used to prevent the creation
> of a “permanent underclass”.
>
> Labour has called on No 10
> <https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/feb/16/tory-aide-wants-enforced-contraception-to-curb-pregnancies>
> to sack Sabisky
> <https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/feb/16/tory-aide-wants-enforced-contraception-to-curb-pregnancies>,
> who is believed to be contracted by Downing Street under Johnson’s de facto
> chief of staff, Dominic Cummings, to work on special projects.
>
> Johnson’s official spokesman refused to comment on Sabisky, his
> controversial views, or whether the prime minister agreed with them.
>
> “The prime minister’s views are well publicised and well documented,” the
> spokesman said more than 10 times, when asked to give Johnson’s views on
> the intelligence of black people and eugenics, the study of methods to
> selectively breed people to improve the human race.
>
> Sabisky, 27, has claimed black Americans have a lower than average IQ than
> white people and are more likely to have an “intellectual disability”. He
> also tweeted: “I am always straight up in saying that women’s sport is more
> comparable to the Paralympics than it is to men’s.”
>
> In an interview from 2016, Sabisky said he was interested in the
> narcolepsy drug modafinil, which also reduces the need for sleep in healthy
> people by two-thirds and potentially helps brain function, although there
> is evidence of a higher risk of people getting Stevens-Johnson syndrome
> <https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stevens-johnson-syndrome/>, a
> life-threatening skin condition.
>
> Sabisky said: “From a societal perspective the benefits of giving everyone
> modafinil once a week are probably worth a dead kid once a year.”
>
> He wrote on Cummings’ website
> <https://dominiccummings.com/2014/08/19/standin-by-the-window-where-the-light-is-strong-de-extinction-machine-intelligence-the-search-for-extra-solar-life-neural-networks-autonomous-drone-swarms-bombing-parliament-genetics-amp/#comment-432>
> in 2014 that in order to get around unplanned pregnancies in the UK,
> long-term contraception should be legally enforced.
>
> “One way to get around the problems of unplanned pregnancies, creating a
> permanent underclass, would be to legally enforce universal uptake of
> long-term contraception at the onset of puberty,” he wrote. “Vaccination
> laws give it a precedent, I would argue.”
>
> Ian Lavery, the Labour party chairman, said: “It is disgusting that not
> only has No 10 failed to condemn Andrew Sabisky’s appalling comments but
> also seems to have endorsed the idea that white people are more intelligent
> than black people.
>
> “Boris Johnson should have the backbone to make a statement in his own
> words on why he has made this appointment, whether he stands by it, and his
> own views on the subject of eugenics.”
>
> Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, tweeted
> <https://twitter.com/NicolaSturgeon/status/1229375167601815558?s=20>:
> “These are really not acceptable headlines for any government to be
> generating (or allowing to be generated). They need to get a grip fast and
> demonstrate some basic but fundamental values in the terms of our public
> debate.”
>
> The geneticist Dr Adam Rutherford also criticised the comments. He tweeted
> <https://twitter.com/AdamRutherford/status/1229310805189054464?s=20>:
> “Like Cummings, he appears to be bewitched by science, without having made
> the effort to understand the areas he is invoking, nor its history.”
>
> He said the “moral repugnance” of the remarks was “overwhelming”, adding:
> “I am all for scientifically minded people advising government. In fact I
> am all for scientists advising government. From this perspective, Sabisky
> and indeed Cummings look bewitched by science without doing the legwork.
>
> “Instead this resembles the marshalling of misunderstood or specious
> science into a political ideology. The history here is important, because
> this process is exactly what happened at the birth of scientific racism and
> the birth of eugenics.”
>
> Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, said over the weekend that
> Sabisky’s comments were “not my views and those are not the views of the
> government”.
>
> However, the prime minister’s deputy official spokesman said Shapps was
> speaking only for himself when he made that statement.
>
>
>