News that Simon Bridges is resigning is a great loss for National and a greater loss to NZ politics.
In another life, I think Simon Bridges would have been an actor.
He has a natural talent to perform and we saw that on the first day of the first term of Jacinda’s Government when Simon pretended to count Labour, Green & NZ First MPs in the House and claimed they didn’t have the numbers to elect Trevor Mallard as the Speaker.
By lying through his teeth, Simon managed to gain vast concessions out of Hipkins on the very floor of Parliament that handed National huge numbers on select committees they weren’t going to get.
He also showed his flair for performance when he held the entire country’s attention hostage by drip feeding the Treasury website hack over a week and humiliated Grant Robertson in the process.
He summed up the aspiration that the National Party pretends to represent and he had more chance of regaining middle Nu Zilind vote than Judith or Muller ever could.
The manner in which Judith smeared him and attempted to use a Me Too harpoon to damage his reputation was fucking disgraceful and a reminder of how carcinogenic she is.
His book was a surprisingly tender and intellectual reflection on masculinity in NZ that deserved far more attention than it received.
I didn’t agree with a lot of Simon’s policy but I respected his intelligence and humour. NZ politics will be a lesser place without him but I genuinely believe he will be amazing at whatever he moves onto next.
A salute to Simon Bridges.
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Would be a great mayor for Tauranga or indeed Auckland. Didn’t have enough horsepower or likeability for the PM role. Alas will end up in some corporate advocacy role or head up an SOE like his old mate Power.
Got into politics far too early and would been much better waiting 10 years or indeed running a small business to give him more depth economically.
Nicola Willis as shadow Finance will confirm my vote for Act next election. Following on from the poor man’s Gordon Brown you would think Fester would stay away from beltway politicians running the country’s finances.
Good riddance to him I say, yukkity yak don’t come back
yukkity yak, Winston is back?
Remember Northlands 10 bridge blackmail?
Easy to take cheap shots at chancers like Soymun–oops!–heh, see…but parting can be such sweet sorrow really–nah not at all actually. He was a classic Natzo, totally in tune with the party and their secret trusts, bent candidate selections and shovelling all wealth possible upstairs.
What do you mean “in another life” he’d have been an actor?
He, like many of his peers always was one.
He’s done himself and his family a big favour – they can have him back after his little dalliance into poltiks.
With a bit of luck he’ll be setting an example. Just so long as he doesn’t go back to being a Pleece Prosecutor.
He and Anne should shake and rattle each others dags and decide who should next stand for Mayor. of the Tearang-ga. Soimon would have a youje following, and it’d be well deserved. Trouble is, will wifey and the kuds go along with it
Yes, he will be missed by many.
The Greens really showed themselves up with their appalling video mocking Simons accent – he sounds like what he is – a part Maori working class Westie. Not good enough for the sneering supercilious Greens apparently.
David George – After Elizabeth Kerekere’s dreadful maiden speech the Greens are in no position to sneer at anybody. Simon will be able to hold the door open for Elizabeth on her way out.
Please get rid of Elizabeth K. Dumb thesis.
Was it stupidity or arrogance that lead to her breaking covid rules. Ffs coming to parliament when you are a close contact bloody outrageous
Anker “ Was it stupidity or arrogance that lead to her breaking Covid rules “. Must you make this an ‘ either’ ‘ or’ situation ? Why not both ? Or neither ? Why not that sense of entitlement which places certain sorts of persons above the law when they get themselves into Parliament ?
However I do agree with your view on her thesis and think that the decision to relive Elizabeth of her health portfolio is a wise one, especially when her “Dr” moniker may have lead some to think that she has medical qualifications when she does not. Back to the undergrad common room.
All very fair points Snow White.
Anker Merci. I can take my tongue out of my cheek after doing a meanie challenge throughout all of paragraph one…
Give me a break. I would think he would not be above doing the same sort of thing.
Thanks Martyn, the look on Bennett’s face is classic: “do I smell wee wee or did one of us step in something bad on the way in?” Either way, using #metoo as a weapon is most cowardly and offputting.
Yes gin hag I agree – marvellously revealing image. Simon looks fresh and clean and up to Nationally-tricky as well. But when looking at Labour, he’s not so bad. Could be the new Winston Peters, we might be glad to have Simon back if we don’t see any better style in the next edition. Maybe in another vehicle – EV modern fit for our era.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYVxrLPCBWU
One of the few politician who seemed to understand what the conversion practices bill is really about, voted against it and therefore can have a clear conscience when the truth comes out about the irreversible damage being done to children who medically transition.
Thank you Simon
Won’t be missed…tried to model himself on Key…and failed.
He said he was an expert on…body language!…ha…ha.
The deal he did with Anadarko showed how fucking useless he would have been in…finance.
His best moment was referring to Bennet as Paula Benefit!
I too am cynical about him. Oxford and Harvard in his degree(s) yet he spoke like a klutz. As Leader of the Opposition, he claimed that (over Covid) the Govt’s “medicine is worse than the cure”. Obviously stuffed up – what he meant was that the cure was worse than the disease. Yet he insisted on what he had said for 2 -3 days before he finally admitted he had stuffed up. He was never leadership material.
In Vino – A lot of the Kiwi “ Oxford educated “ persons have done their under- grad and sometimes post-grad work here in New Zealand, then spent a year or two, at eg Oxford, doing MA’s, Hons, or completing or failing PhD’s, which is very different from the Oxford collegial experience as a full-time student. Even the Rhodes Scholarship recipients can be a bit suspect – it helps to have been an All Black. I would love to name the good New Zealand judge, Canterbury grad, who apparently should have been awarded a Rhodes Scholarship a long way back, but was pipped by a med student – I knew why, but have forgotten.
I check the educational qualifications of sub-par politicians, and the ‘Oxford education’ description can involve a bit of hyperbole, and I frequently assume that the hopeless pollies are from the University of Waikato, but am sometimes wrong on that! Tragically, in New Zealand, university isn’t what it used to be, and it can be difficult trying to figure out quite what some educational institutions with only Maori names are, or what they purport to do.
Can you really see Simon reporting to Luxon for his regular performance review? I think he has, rightfully , spat the dummy.
I never saw anything good in the way he operated and am glad another nasty nat has gone.
At least National politicIan can move on to well paid roles ex Labour MPs have to try and fine another spot in the public trough as they have little to offer any public companies.
A certain court case involving him and Jamie Lee Ross is coming up in July.
Bridges was struggling the first day he spoke. Remember Jack asking what internal policies contributed to the NZ’s inflation. He responded that the $6bn fund labour hasn’t spent yet was the reason and made some other irrelevant comments. Bridges is a monrgel and Bulley and would have made a good speaker.
Goldsmith was a failure and ummed and ahhed his way thru his incomprehensible rhetoric.
The mystery homeless man Woodhouse was useless and never made an effective contribution.
Bailey has an understanding of finances but has no character or charisma and could not articulate his message.
Willis will struggle with finance and her her creative use of numbers will be her undoing.
I’snt Bennet an accountant – despite being of no consequence he may be their best bet.
In summary, the Natz and Act have no capable finance spokesperson to justify their tax for the rich policy.
Agree Martyn 100%.
Didnt like his politics or him when he was Leader but found that his time in exile brought out the best in him and even I have to commend him for his intellect and leadership when the Nats were imploding under Crusher.
His sense of humour and common sense also became more apparent via the media (Mumble, mumble the working group) and I wish him well for the future. He has had a lousy 12 months on a personal level but has fronted up and pushed through repeatedly. He deserves a rest and I think would be a boon to the media (if that’s where he ends up) as he can mediate middle class wokery with aplomb. He delivers common sensical rhetoric in a depersonalised way that leaves those baying for blood with little room for manoeuvre.
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