Send out the clown: Boris agrees to go

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Hello and welcome to the Intelligence from the Economist in London, I'm Jason Palmer.

And also still in London, I'm John Fassman. Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

If you go by the laws on the books in much of Southeast Asia, there's not a lot of room for LGBT rights. That is slowly changing as lawmakers in at least some countries in the region catch up with shifting public attitudes.

And for jazznuts like me, the Montreal Jazz Festival, which ends this week, is an annual highlight. We look back at the life of one of the city's finest exports, Oscar Peterson, a pioneering pianist whose spirit pervades the event long after his death. First up, though, Boris Johnson is standing down as Britain's Prime Minister. The news was first revealed on BBC Radio this morning.

Chris, let's go straight back to.

You were just talking to Downing Street. The Prime Minister has agreed to stand down.

He has spoken to Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the backbench 1922 committee this morning, and said that it is.

Appropriate for him to stand down and.

For the party to pick a new.

Leader in time for just yesterday, Mr. Johnson insisted to members of Parliament that he would not resign.

Look at the issues that this country faces.

I look at the pressures that people are under.

I look at the biggest war in Europe for 80 years and I cannot for the life of me see how it is responsible just to walk away from that.

A succession of scandals had piled pressure on Mr. Johnson last month. He survived a confidence vote, but with 40% of his own MPs voting against him. Still, he insisted that he could govern and unite his party. But all this week, support from even his closest and most loyal cabinet colleagues and ministers had been ebbing away with dozens of ministerial resignations.

We have reason to question the truth and integrity of what we've all been told. And at some point we have to conclude that enough is enough.

I believe that point is now, those resignations were precipitated by yet another scandal, this time over Mr. Johnson's promotion of an MP accused of sexual misconduct. The end of his premiership comes in stark contrast to the exuberance of his election victory in 2019, when he delivered the biggest majority for his party in more than three decades.

I say thank you for the trust you have placed in us and in.

Me, and we will work round the.

Clock to repay your trust and to deliver on your priorities with a Parliament.

That works for you.

Boris Johnson seemed to have a gift for surviving scandal through charm, temporization, prevarication and sheer shamelessness. But in the end, it wasn't enough.

It's been an agonizing 36 hours since Cabinet ministers first resigned. And this morning, yet more representations to the Prime Minister, who has until now just been denying reality.

Ed Carr is the Economist's deputy editor.

His own core people told him that the end, it was all over, that he couldn't remain in office, and he reluctantly faced up to that reality and agreed that he should go.

And give us a brief summary if you can. You said it's been an agonizing 36 hours. Give us a brief summary of what's happened over the past 36 hours.

So this all began with the resignation of two senior Cabinet ministers, including the Chancellor of the Exchequer. And it's really very hard for a Prime Minister to survive without his or her chancellor. But Johnson tried to tough it out, and as he did so, the sort of junior ministers started going, ministerial aid started going, and there was just a flood of resignationso many, in fact, that the BBC had a sort of ticker in, in the corner of its screen, counting these resignations as they went. Johnson then faced representations from more ministers who told him that the end was over. He refused to listen to them. And all the while a sense that sort of everybody else knew that this couldn't go on. That sense was growing and he denied it. And finally this morning, it caught up with him. And this is all about, in the run of things, a seemingly relatively small scandal compared with the scandals he's faced over the alleged sexual assault by a deputy Chief Whip on two men at a party. And Johnson's response to this was just unreconstructed. He tried to protect the man's job and sort of ministers and party Tory MPs felt that this is just Johnson back to his usual tricks and usual behavior, and they'd had enough, as you say.

This was not to diminish the seriousness of what happened, but this was a relatively small scandal. What is it about this one, do you think that finally brought him down?

I think it's the accumulation of things, John. I mean, after the party gate, when Downing street held party after party during lockdowns in Covid and Johnson found, first of all, said they had parties and happened and then said he didn't know about them and then said he wasn't there and, you know, each one of those statements turned out to be false. He had promised to turn over a new leaf and it was the same pattern of behaviour. So there was just a sense that Johnson was not going to change. And while he did so, the business of government was impossible. Scandal, lying, revelations and apologies was just consuming all of the oxygen in his government.

What legacy does he leave, do you think, both in substantive achievements and on British politics more broadly?

Well, he has been a hugely important figure, but for him, I don't believe that the Brexit referendum would have gone the way it did. He then, when the House of Commons was unable to agree on how to bring about Brexit, he forced Brexit through and under him. Britain developed vaccines and ordered vaccines very early and that was an achievement. And then lastly, I suppose he has championed the cause of Ukraine. So he has done some substantial things, but it's all come along with a style of politics that has been terribly corrosive and that the country really now needs to recover from.

Ed, as we were speaking, a Conservative MP suggested to the BBC that history might be kinder to Boris Johnson than we are today. And then mention his leadership during the pandemic. You mentioned his leadership during Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Do you think that's possible, that history will view him more kindly than he's being viewed right now?

It's possible. But I do think that there's something about Boris Johnson and his relationship with the truth that has been terribly undermining of politics in Britain. His whole career has been underpinned by a belief in his ability to spin words in order to deal with any sort of difficulty he finds himself in. And that includes the kind of contradictions that politics should resolve. And Brexit is a very good example of that. He got Brexit through by promising everything to everybody. To the people who wanted Brexit because they didn't like globalization, he promised them that would be absolutely fine. To the people who wanted to get out of the European Union because they wanted sort of Singapore on Thames, super deregulated Britain, he said that would happen as well. The Tory party has continued to have these two wings, a sort of Protectionist, corporatist, reasonably high spending wing, and then a sort of more libertarian wing. And he's never tried to resolve the contradictions between that. He doesn't like taking difficult decisions, and so he just sort of spins words and lies. And that has produced a kind of government by fantasy. Everything is words, everything is spun out. And I think that's been a very corrosive influence on politics. So you're measuring, I suppose, a couple of substantive achievements and trying to set that against, if you like, a style of politics that means that Britain really hasn't faced up to the difficult choices that it needs to face up to.

And so what is next for the Conservative Party? Boris says he wants to stay on as caretaker until leadership elections in October. Realistically, do you think he can do that?

I think it's really difficult. I mean, over 40 members of the government have resigned. That's about a quarter of all the people on the government's payroll. Government simply can't work if you have that many vacancies. And he's trying to negotiate his staying on until the autumn. I think that's a bad idea. I don't know how those negotiations will turn out. But unless a lot of people agree to come back into government, there simply won't be enough people there to run government departments. So I think it would be much better for the country if the deputy prime minister, Dominic Raab, were to be the caretaker and the Conservative Party were to arrange a leadership campaign. But Boris Johnson has resisted leaving office. He may well resist the idea that he should leave in short order, and it's very hard to know how that will turn out.

All right, Ed, thanks so much for joining us this morning.

Thank you, John.

When it comes to LGBT rights, Asia remains conservative. Only one country in the region, Taiwan, has legalized gay marriage. And just last month, a district court in Japan ruled to uphold a ban on same sex unions. In lots of countries in Southeast Asia, homosexuality itself is still criminalized. That makes life and love much more difficult for Asia's non straight couples. But that hasn't stopped the wedding bells from ringing.

I went to a wedding in the hills of Antipolo, which is the city to the east of Manila.

Amy Hawkins is a news editor for the Economist.

It's a really nice kind of luxury resort place with an infinity pool and really nice views over the city.

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful.

It was the friends and family of two men called Joanie Reyes and Josh Prado Tupas who'd gathered to Celebrate the holy union between the two men. Reverend Princentio Agbayani, who's a gay priest and activist from the Philippines, led a service which he devised himself, and it's formed of Protestant and Catholic rites. And then the grooms declared their vows. I choose to spend today in all of my tomorrows with you. There were lots of tears, and everyone looked wonderful. This wouldn't really be an unusual scene in other parts of the world, but in Southeast Asia, same sex relationships are still taboo.

So given that that taboo still exists, how common are these kinds of ceremonies?

Well, more and more of them are taking place. They carry no legal weight, but they'll be officiated by religious or local leaders. And it's a kind of symbolic event for the community to come together. In Cambodia, an NGO has devised documents that couples can sign, which outline mutual obligations and shared ownership of assets. And it gives the couples an excuse to throw a traditional wedding ceremony with local officials and monks. Of course, not every country is equal when it comes to this. In some places, such as Brunei or Malaysia, same sex relations are completely illegal and punishable by imprisonment, caning, and fined. So, unsurprisingly, you'd struggle to find any public wedding ceremonies between same sex couples.

But those exceptions notwithstanding, is it the case that the that homosexuality is broadly becoming more accepted in Southeast Asia?

Yes, definitely. These weddings and ceremonies that people have kind of reflect changing social mores. So 73% of Filipinos think that society should accept homosexuality, and 70% of Vietnamese people say they would be happy to have gay neighbors. In Thailand, 91% of people polled in June said that they would accept a gay person in their family. And the Reverend Agbayani in Antipolo has officiated services for around 3,000 couples since he was ordained in 2008. And he told me that 15 years ago, people around the country were curious about these kind of events, but now they see it as ordinary.

But if it's still not possible to do this as a legal ceremony, then it doesn't sound as if the laws are catching up with the changing views in society.

The lawmakers are slowly catching up. So in 2019, the Philippine Supreme Court rejected a petition to declare the ban on gay marriage unconstitutional. But in their ruling, they did acknowledge that same sex couples deserved legal recognition in some ways. And the same year, two bills seeking to institute civil unions between same sex couples were introduced to the Philippine Congress and elsewhere. Vietnam lifted a ban on same sex marriages in 2015, which opened the door for people to have these symbolic ceremonies and just A couple of Years ago, in 2019, Cambodia committed to amending its constitution to ensure marriage equality. And it's Thailand making the most progress on this. And just on June 15, the Parliament approved draft legislation on same sex unions, which is now making its way through the cabinet.

And so where does all of this then sit with the broader question of LGBT rights in the region?

Yeah, I think they're making progress on that front as well. So in the Philippines, more than 20 municipalities have passed anti discrimination rules, and there's a bill prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, which is being considered at a national level as well. And In Thailand, in 2015, the government gave protections to expressions of gender identity. And that's been particularly useful for trans people who've been able to challenge discriminatory practices. Liberal countries such as Thailand have seen a backlash against recent advances. Some opponents to LGBT rights attack queer people being proponents of white supremacy or as being incompatible with Asian values. But in the Philippines, Rev. Agbayani told me that he'd say, you know, love is an Asian value. And it seems like more and more people across the region agree with him.

Thanks very much for joining us, Amy.

Thanks for having me.

The Montreal Jazz Festival is the world's largest jazz festival.

Sebastian Scottney writes about music for the Economist.

This year, there are more than 350 concerts, contemporary music. There are quite a few of the legends of jazz who are here, but if there's one legend that typifies the spirit of the town, I guess it's Oscar Peterson. He's the biggest jazz star to have come from Montreal. One of his most popular compositions, night Train, kind of opens up a lot of the story of how jazz got going in Montreal. His father was a porter on the Canadian Pacific Railway. And the train and the area around the station, and the growth of the black community from a much smaller base that never existed in the States is part of Montreal's history. These days, in the area that they call Little Burgundy, there's a real sense of civic pride. I mean, he is their favorite son. Oscar Peterson was a teenage star, and as the son of a railway porter, he was even featured in the Canadian Pacific press release when he was about 19, complete with the claim that his shoulders were about four octaves wide. Montreal, through Prohibition became a magnet for people seeking good time and evenings out. And there are even songs that celebrate that. Goodbye, Broadway, hello, Montreal. There was jazz in the hotels. There was a lot of music going on. The origins of that are that the state of Quebec set up a commission for liquor in 1921, and that turned on the switch and Montreal and nightlife more or less became synonymous. Oscar Beaton's reputation was growing very fast. In his teens, he was already doing radio shows. He was just such a superb musician. People wanted him in their bands, and that led to incidents where white band leaders had to struggle to get him in. You have the pianist here who is clearly knocking spots off everybody else in town, and everybody wants him in their band. Plus, St. Henri from the Canadiana Suite captures the flavor of a busy city where everything is bustling and everything is happening. Oscar Peterson's tune just captures a particular vibe of busyness. The fact that Montreal and jazz have such a strong connection historically goes back to that period. But also, Oscar is such a towering figure in the history of jazz. He shapes how pianists have played since it's a particular style of playing, almost like without limits when it comes to sort of technical facility, but also incredibly vivid imagination. One of the nicknames of Montreal is the City of the Saints, and with a tune like Hymn to Freedom, Oscar Peterson becomes like the patron saint of jazz in Montreal, and we can add him to the community of saints here.

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Sam.