Head Girl Helen Clark once confided that being the Leader of the Opposition was a thankless task. It's negative by its very nature, always opposing everything, there's never an opportunity to crack a smile, she lamented.

And of course with the adversarial nature of the business it is a hard task but it can be done, as Clark eventually learnt. Even in adversity there's always a funny side and if you can't see it, particularly in politics, you're always going to be painted as a misery guts.

And Angry Andy Little runs the risk of being seen as that, even though he has a good sense of humour he rarely shows it.

Take his response to a couple of issues over the past week.

The change of Prime Ministers across the ditch and the praise the magnanimous Malcolm Turnbull heaped on his fellow money marketeer Teflon John Key. He held him up as an example of how he has the ability to take his country along with him, how he can turn the complicated issues into something we can all get our teeth into.

Well Angry Andy was grinding his teeth saying if that's the new Aussie leader's view then he pitied Australia. It was seen by many as mean spirited as praise of this sort from the competitive Ocker shockers is rare praise indeed.

It's understandable that Little wouldn't have agreed with the sentiments but he could have laughed it off, saying something along the lines of Turnbull's a fresh face at The Lodge but he'll learn.

And then we've had the touchy feely story of the bears everyone wants to cuddle, the Pandas. Teflon John was in China last year visiting a city called Chengdu which has a panda habitat on the outskirts of it.

His wife Bronagh got the job of cuddling up to the bears while Key went off on his own to open a consulate. Not surprisingly the media stuck with Bronagh with Key joking that Prime Ministers are no match for pandas.

He's been talking with the Chinese about getting a couple into a zoo in God's Own, perhaps exchanging them for kiwis.

The cost of playing host to pandas is an expensive business, up to a 100 million bucks for the lease of them. Wellington's keen and Key says there's a significant economic spin-off for any city that makes the cut.

A nice prospect but not for Angry Andy who grizzled there's more important things to spend our money on and besides, if the capital's economy's dependant on the arrival of pandas then it's in serious trouble.

Methinks he doth protest too much!