Bridges fights losing twitter battle with Nigel Latta

Written By: - Date published: 7:52 am, December 19th, 2019 - 18 comments
Categories: internet, making shit up, Media, Simon Bridges, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, twitter, uncategorized, you couldn't make this shit up - Tags:

Simon Bridges twitter account (is that you Hamish?) and Nigel Latta have engaged in an interesting battle on Twitter recently.  And it is straight out of the Trump play book.  

The tactic appears to be to pick a fight with someone who could be smeared as an intellectual and trust he does not fight back.  But it looks like Bridges may have miscalculated.

It all when Nigel Latta publicly expressed concern at National’s attack mode and likened it to Trump’s America.

Bridges asked what was wrong.

To which Latta replied:

He also said this:

Simon replied:

Clearly Simon does not know what “disingenuous” means.

Latta tried to point this out:

Latta was asked if he was thinking of a political career.

Bridges then chose to call him a celebrity, obviously not in the better sense of the word.

Latta had the perfect reply:

https://twitter.com/NigelLatta/status/1207034836398948352

Bridges tried to end it with the most passive aggressive of responses.  I mean “woke christmas”? WTF is that?

But Latta had the best and final burn.

Bridges was asked about the feud.  From the Herald:

[Latta’s] a guy who trades as an independent boffin who’s kind of nice and straight down the middle – the reality is he is clearly deep on the left; he doesn’t like National” he told reporters.

Bridges said that Latta was entitled to his opinion, but he should not “dress it up with some sort of pseudo-science objectivity”.

So only those deep on the left do not like National?

Engaging in twitter spats with independent commentators with a strong media presence, I wonder how that will end up?

Update:  Latta has reflected on what has happened and thinks that politics should occur differently. His conclusion is a strong endorsement of Jacinda Ardern’s approach to politics.

18 comments on “Bridges fights losing twitter battle with Nigel Latta ”

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  1. tc 1
    19 December 2019 at 8:53 am

    Hopefully many like Latta take up the cause as it leaves a clear path for JA whilst nats social media handlers get to deal with the BS they keep spreading.

    Consider the possibility this is where influencers like Thiel is looking after the folk who granted him his bolthole and citizenship. So much experience and resources for the right.

    • Sacha 1.1
      19 December 2019 at 12:56 pm

      The Nats have 30 social media staff just in Bridges' office, let alone the rest. How many do we think the govt parties have?

  2. michelle 2
    19 December 2019 at 8:57 am

    Bridges just got taken to the drycleaners by Nigel Latta and when national get beaten they quickly revert to 'he's from the left' rhetoric why because if we dig deep enough all nationals bullshit starts to rise like rubbish @ the rubbish tip

  3. Anker 3
    19 December 2019 at 9:20 am

    We need more of this. Multiple credible people assertively challenging national on their bullshit. Labour seems to miss doing this. That’s not a criticism of them. They seem to be trying to focus and take responsibility for what they are achieving. That’s admirable. But they are in danger of letting nationals lies and spin win the argument

  4. michelle 4
    19 December 2019 at 9:47 am

    NZ First namely uncle Winstone will challenge national at the next election he will remind them of the 9 years they had to implement policy and didn't do it instead they made the rich richer and the poorer even poorer.

  5. Kevin 5
    19 December 2019 at 9:55 am

    I have doubts that Bridges even writes his own tweets.

    They seem far too advanced for his intellect.

    • Sacha 5.1
      19 December 2019 at 12:55 pm

      He has 30 social media staff. Most of them will be tending Facecloth rather than Twitter but damn straight he would have virtually no hands-on involvement in either platform. Bridges does what he's told like a good lad.

  6. lprent 6
    19 December 2019 at 1:02 pm

    I saw a similar bit of hypocritical dribble from John someone or another (a great supporter of right and the right to gossip with false facts – some kind of useless journalist from memory) the other night.

    He 'suddenly' realised that Jacinda was president of the international socialist youth during the first two years as an MP. He raised this as disturbing fact – in the usual parrot Farrar style.

    He appeared to get upset and very unwilling to talk about the equivalent position that John Key had in being the chair of an equivalent international conservative organisation in his last couple of years of being our PM.

    Of course it could have been my delivery where I made it clear that I thought his omission, presentation and raising of it was because he was a useless journo, frequently a purveyor of false facts, and was just being a arsehole snake in the grass in this case. It was about as stupid an act as Simon Bridges Twitter usually is.

    Basically if people want to act like arseholes on the Net – then as far as I am concerned, I can't be bothered being as polite as Latta. If they then try to then play the "I'm a victim card" (as SBT did above) then I'll just treat them as I would for Cameron Slater – a gutless wonder who always went that route as well.

  7. Sabine 7
    19 December 2019 at 1:27 pm

    and the country was non plussed about all that storm in a tea pot ….or much ado about nothing.

  8. Peter 8
    19 December 2019 at 2:21 pm

    Latta used to deal with recalcitrant children so him engaging with Bridges is good.

  9. Blazer 9
    19 December 2019 at 6:06 pm

    Bridges quoting Treasury…predictions…the irony!

  10. Jackel 10
    19 December 2019 at 7:29 pm

    Bridges isn't really debating the issue he's just using standard right wing tactics and, playing on ordinary people's fears about losing their jobs and livelihoods. Things like government spending and immigration play directly into these fears.

    The left just have to take it slowly with their changes as people aren't ready. It would take a big global crisis to really wake people up and make them change. We just better hope it's not too late.

  11. JustMe 11
    19 December 2019 at 7:47 pm

    Simon Bridges is resorting to that stupid habit of trying to achieve some sense of 'upmanship' over someone who is more intelligent than Bridges can ever deem himself as being.

    In other words Bridges is behaving like a stupid Village Idiot who thinks a 'tit for tat' response will result in a lowly NZ voter voting for him(Bridges)at election time.

    I am so over Simon Bridges. He is a major turn off for me and perhaps many thousands of other voters at the next election.

    His(Bridges) 'justifications' for behaving like a Village Idiot all because he thinks he looks(and awfully enough sounds)good just doesn't do anything to me. I have switched off listening to him or reading any of the NZ National Party articles, adverts(even those probably funded by the wealthy Asian donators to the NZ National Party bank account(s))in the Mouthpiece of the NZ National Party tabloid NZ Herald.

    In fact every time a National Party MP appears on the telly I reach for the remote control and the Mute button. Thankgoodness someone invented the remote control because it now makes a National MP look like a bloated gold-fish puffing away and looking as stupid as their dearest leader that is the Village Idiot(aka Simon Bridges).

  12. Brian Tregaskin 12
    19 December 2019 at 9:36 pm

    Prediction:-Simon Bridges leads the only Right Wing party in the world that will *not win* the NZ 2020 election despite using Topham Guerin (TG) for a social media campaign! As good as TG are I think they cant do much to save this one.

  13. georgecom 13
    22 December 2019 at 3:00 pm

    S-lie-mon Bridges

    S-lie Bridges

  14. Ahwen Boone 14
    27 December 2019 at 6:23 am

    There has never been a successful socialist government anywhere, ever. What makes the "left" think it is achieveble in New Zealand – ever?

  15. A 15
    27 December 2019 at 10:56 am

    I love Simon Bridges.

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