From the moment he had become opposition leader following the defeat of Lindsay Thompson's government in 1982, Jeff Kennett had been viewed as a political larrikin.

The wholesale slaughter of thousands of pigs has predictably drawn the protests of animal welfare and rights groups.

Lonely her fate was, / Environed from sight / In the house where the gate was / Past finding at night.

Lord Gifford, deep beneath the ground, / Heard Alexander's bugle sound, / And tarried not his garb to change, / But, in his wizard habit strange, / Came forth, a quaint and fearful sight; …