Giorgia Meloni has stunned the liberal West by her election as Prime Minister of Italy after openly espousing the values of traditional marriage and the family, of Catholic Christianity and of womanhood and patriotism.

Should her election be seen as a sign of hope? Dr Gavin Ashenden thinks so. But in this 20th episode of Merely Catholic , the podcast series for the Catholic Herald, the veteran journalist Peter Hitchens explains the reasons why he is altogether more pessimistic about the prospects of any political movement successfully overcoming decades of corruption and the rise of the new ideologies. Now is a time for conscience, he says.