A View from the Beach: Hi Ho Silvio, Away!

Former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi (R) holds and
hugs a lamb as he poses with Michela Vittoria Brambilla,
animal right activist and member of parliament for
Berlusconi's Forza Italia party

I've missed Silvio Berlusconi ever since the Eye-talians kick him out of their Senate for tax fraud, hardly a crime at all in Italy. Fortunately, he's back in the news, and, as always, in the company of a beautiful lady: Berlusconi 'saves' Easter lambs, angering Italy's meat lobby

Former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has infuriated Italy's meat industry by joining a vegetarian campaign and "adopting" five lambs that would have been butchered for Easter.

Silvio Berlusconi (R)? What's that all about. But if it comes to that, I encourage him to join the Republicans.

A video by the Italian League in Defense of Animals and the Environment, showing Berlusconi cuddling, kissing and feeding the lambs with a baby's bottle, was circulated widely on social media over the weekend.

The 80-year-old four-times prime minister was filmed in his parkland estate in front of a sign saying "Defend life, choose a vegetarian Easter", while a scrolling message urged viewers to "Be like him. He saved five lambs from the Easter slaughter."