The English writer, theologian and heavily-mustachioed sage seemed an unlikely choice for the climax of an impassioned oration by a tiny, fiery Italian blonde.

But maybe not.

Chesterton was known as the "Apostle of common sense".

"Fires will be kindled to testify that two and two make four. Swords will be drawn to prove that leaves are green in summer. That time has arrived. We are ready," she shouted in her thick, working-class Roman accent.

The audience whooped.

Part of Meloni's speech went viral.

"They want to call us parent 1, parent 2, gender LGBT, citizen X, with code numbers.

"But we are not code numbers … and we'll defend our identity.

"I am Giorgia. I am a woman. I am a mother. I am Italian. I am Christian!"

Some DJs, who were unhappy with Meloni's views on gay marriage, sampled her words and put a disco beat behind them to demonise her.

It backfired big time.

The song became a hit in Italian clubs and shot up the charts; far from discrediting Meloni, it only boosted her popularity.

Last week, that fiery, 45-year-old blonde became the first female prime minister of Italy, a major personal triumph in a still notably macho culture.

But the headlines all focused on Giorgia Meloni being "far-Right".

"The most dangerous woman in Europe," warned Germany's Stern magazine.

Meloni had even upset Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission.

Responding to a question on whether there were any concerns about the forthcoming elections in Italy, a sanctimoniously smirking von der Leyen replied, "If things go in a difficult direction, I've spoken about Hungary and Poland, we have tools."

They call Giorgia Meloni a fascist, but it's the impeccably liberal von der Leyen who behaves like one.

"We have tools," spoken like a true totalitarian.

Who would you trust when it comes to respecting a democratic decision?

The first elected leader of Italy for 14 years, a single mother from a poor home, or a failed German defence minister, the product of a wealthy elite who was shoehorned into the EU's top job without a single vote cast?

While there are valid concerns about the fascist origins of Meloni's party, what I hear when I listen to her are mainstream Conservative values.

Here is a politician who speaks up for the family and the nation.

She opposes globalisation which turns men and women into faceless units of consumption.

She says yes to secure borders and no to mass migration, yes to sexual identity and no to the alphabetti spaghetti of gender politics.

Why are these views of millions of middle-of-the road people now called "far-Right"? Continue reading

• Allison Pearson is a columnist and the chief interviewer of the Daily Telegraph.

Theology. Philosophy.

I know you think I'm kidding.

Who does that? Can you even get a job doing that?

Good questions. Here's your answers: Not enough women. And, yes, though I can't promise you'll make millions.

Who needs all those big ideas anyway?

You do. Those nearest and dearest to you. Those you have yet to meet. Those in your parish. Your friends. Your country. Your politicians. Everybody needs something of these big ideas.

From a distance, theology and philosophy sound like the sort of thing for fat, pipe-smoking, balding, old white guys. Hardly.

From Action to Contemplation

Frankly, as someone who started out managing stockpiles of fuel, car parts, medicines and nutrition supplies in the desert of South Sudan and the jungle of Congo, I have found my way from that bustly, hustly, grunty, daily work to another kind of work. An intellectual work.

I am captured, arrested, by what I have found.

And I need to tell you, if you are a young woman contemplating your path into the future and you were thinking of studying anything in the realm of social sciences, politics, economics, languages, humanities, literature, history or you simply are attracted to turning over ideas and teasing out their implications for real life…do yourself a favour, consider theology and philosophy.

Not just any theology or philosophy, but a Catholic education. And even if you have some doubts about your academic ability, take a leap of faith, you might surprise yourself.

Trust me, you won't regret it. Continue reading

• Lucy O'Donoghue comes from Auckland and lives in Bangkok, Thailand with her ‘lads' - an Irish American husband, a baby boy, and a rambunctious dog.

Yet this claim deflects attention from the real issue: what is the true nature of marriage?

Two rival visions jostle for supremacy. The conjugal model says marriage is a lifelong union between a man and a woman. The partnership model says marriage is a contract between committed loving couples.

Conjugal marriage is a comprehensive union (mental and physical, emotional and sexual) of a man and a woman.

Marriage has a true essence, a fundamental core; it is a real phenomenon, not just a human invention or convention.

A crocodile is a crocodile, a tree is a tree, a river is a river. We did not invent crocodiles, we simply discovered them and named them. We can call a hippopotamus a crocodile if we want but that does not change its essential nature.

All it does is lead to confusion.

Marriage is a pre-political institution.

States recognise marriage; they do not invent it. States value the institution in which men and women commit indefinitely and exclusively to each other and to the children their sexual union commonly (but not invariably) produces.

Gay marriage proponents will argue that defines marriage so as to exclude gay couples, a neat trick that fools no-one.

Not so. Recall their key claim: gay couples deserve equal legal recognition.

That is an empty argument. To insist upon equality is to require that "like things be treated alike".

So X and Y should be treated equally for X and Y are alike. But we need to know in what respects X is like Y and whether these characteristics are morally valid before we can be confident that they merit equal treatment.

We must have a standard for deciding which characteristics count and which don't.

Is gay (partnership) marriage "like" conjugal marriage?

In some respects, yes: both may involve monogamous couples who have a deep commitment to each other. Continue reading

Sources

• Rex Ahdar in The Dominion Post
• Image: kidspot.co.nz

Rex Ahdar is a law professor at Otago University.