Hello, this is The Spectator podcast, and I'm Narupendigast.

As Matteo Salvini looks to consolidate power in Italy, we ask, what exactly defines the far right these days?

We also take a look at Downing Street's own power grab as it seeks to centralise control over the rest of Whitehall.

And finally, Melissa Kite tells me about getting her dogs blessed in a London church.

When Matteo Salvini came into government last year,

everyone from the Guardian to the FT dubbed him a far-right politician.

But in a changing Europe where both Euroscepticism and nationalism are on the rise,

who are the real far right today? Douglas Murray poses the question in this week's cover piece

and argues that overusing the label is both wrong and dangerous. He joins me down the line,

together with Anne the Kelvoy, senior editor of The Economist. Douglas, can you start by explaining to listeners what you understand the term far right to mean

and why you think it's become such a blurred term?

Well, several things.

Obviously, this is spurred by the political developments in Italy, where it looks like

Matteo Salvini's Liga, if Italy is to go to the polls again soon, will come out certainly

on top in those polls. And the Liga, formerly the Liga Nord, generally been described in the

foreign press as far right. It's been regarded as pretty far right within Italy, within Italian

politics. And one of the things I'm interested in, I try to explore in

this piece is the fact that several things are happening at the same time. There's obviously

movements within Europe. There are obviously problems with what have been regarded as, you know,

mainstream and the centrist policies on a whole range of issues. A number of people have been using the term far right, like other similar terms,

in order to basically excommunicate certain people or parties.

And there has been an understanding historically of what far right does entail.

...