See you later Simon

Written By: - Date published: 12:13 pm, March 15th, 2022 - 40 comments
Categories: national, politicans, same old national, Simon Bridges - Tags:

Simon Bridges has just announced that he is retiring from politics.  No doubt he waited until National’s polling was better.  But he depletes National’s rather limited think talent ranks.  But at least they will still have Maureen Pugh.

40 comments on “See you later Simon ”

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  1. Matiri 1
    15 March 2022 at 12:26 pm

    Interesting typo there – lots of possibilities but all variations on the same theme!

    think talent ranks

    thin talent ranks

    thin talent tanks

    think talent tanks

    [Teach me to rush. Now corrected – MS]

  2. Corey Humm 2
    15 March 2022 at 12:30 pm

    Goodbye Simon. I will never forget that some "emotional junior staffer" had to delete the racist refugee policy national was touting three years ago today while my city and neighborhood were under attack because you lacked the decency and even after the attack lacked the decency to say it was wrong.

    I will never forget that you an oxford educated career politician had the audacity to attack a newborn baby after the prime minister gave birth and try to say the prime minister would raise it in some radical gender identity way because "funny ideas from university".

    I will never forget you politicizing COVID and calling people claiming the COVID wage subsidy effectively bludgers and complaining that $20 a week went to beneficiaries

    I will never forget you screaming at officials at the height of COVID.

    I will never forget you as the minister responsible for broadband saying you have to drive to wellington everyday because your broadband is awfully in Tauranga and doing photo ops with supermarket employees during lockdown.

    I will never forget the donations scandal of how you told Jamie Lee Ross to "make it legal" though you were accurate once about Maureen.

    I will never forget the angry yelling dig whistling bullshit you tried for two years as an awful opposition leader.

    Thanks for your $2 a week tax cuts I guess national needs another finance spokesperson now. Maybe we can get 50 cents more a week.

    Glad to see you out of the trough

    • Barfly 2.1
      15 March 2022 at 12:45 pm

      I will remember his losing his rag on nationwide tv when questioned about Anadarko

    • Blade 2.3
      15 March 2022 at 3:58 pm

      So, just another polly with some form?

      ''I will never forget that some "emotional junior staffer" had to delete the racist refugee policy national was touting ''

      What's racist? What policy?

      https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/an-emotional-junior-staffer-is-responsible-for-deleting-nationals-un-migration-petition/6CZTIVXNZQLGBCQEXTYMIARHPM/

      ''I will never forget that you an oxford educated career politician had the audacity to attack a newborn baby after the prime minister gave birth and try to say the prime minister would raise it in some radical gender identity way because "funny ideas from university.''

      A smidgen precious given the kickings National polly's continually receive from the media? Simon was sure dumb in that interview. The hosts did a number on him. And who was one of the hosts? Jeremy Wells…enough said.

      ''I will never forget you politicizing COVID and calling people claiming the COVID wage subsidy effectively bludgers and complaining that $20 a week went to beneficiaries''

      Well, that's a matter of perception. I just read a different strategy Simon would have taken if he was in charge.

      Quote:

      "Bluntly, what we see in this package today is money flowing faster into the hands of beneficiaries than the workers and the businesses that will lose their businesses and their jobs over coming weeks and months,''

      https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/412000/coronavirus-simon-bridges-criticised-for-politics-as-usual-pot-shots-amid-covid-19-crisis

      Maybe Corey…you have forgotten too much?

      • Bearded Git 2.3.1
        16 March 2022 at 6:12 am

        "So, just another polly with some form?"

        Blade-The Right always tries to paint all politicians as being the same when in fact it is usually the National Party MP's who have been up to corrupt or semi-corrupt acts-think Judith Collins and Oravida.

        The Jamie Lee Ross comment "make it legal" is what should define Soimon’s time in parliament.

    • RosieLee 2.4
      16 March 2022 at 6:46 am

      Out of the trough? On the pension he'll have?

  3. Ad 3
    15 March 2022 at 12:34 pm

    Jan Tinetti (Labour) lost Tauranga to Bridges in 2020 with 1,856 fewer votes. Sure the tide was unusually high that year.

    But if she's up for it again, I'd suggest she would now have a shot at winning.

    • Belladonna 3.1
      15 March 2022 at 12:41 pm

      If she could only make it to 2,000 differential in an election with a historically overwhelming swing to Labour, it seems…. unlikely.

      But will certainly make the Labour selection for that seat much more interesting.

    • Ovid 3.2
      15 March 2022 at 1:26 pm

      Maybe. If Winston stands, he could split the right wing vote and Labour could slip on through. But we can’t be blind to the polls. Maybe if Labour deliver a groundbreaking budget in the run up to the by-election. It’s certainly worth putting up a fight.

    • James Simpson 3.3
      15 March 2022 at 3:02 pm

      Tauranga is a conservative hot bed, full of retired Farmers and Bankers.

      Never say never but it would be a huge win for Labour to ever win that town.

  4. Stuart Munro 4
    15 March 2022 at 12:42 pm

    Gerald Otto suggests that there is a scandal about to break:

    "What is your take? Who had the dirt? Who had the motive?"

    • ghostwhowalksnz 4.1
      15 March 2022 at 1:44 pm

      Jami lee Ross donations court case could be coming up soon. The evidence may not be favourable to the favourite son of the Chao Shan Association

  5. Dennis Frank 5
    15 March 2022 at 12:48 pm

    He said his future was “commercial” and might include a “media project”. He was evasive when asked if he had already been offered a job.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300541457/former-national-party-leader-simon-bridges-retiring-from-politics-will-spark-byelection

    "My view is, as my mother-in-law said to me, in the end we are all just bubbles on the water.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/its-time-national-party-mp-simon-bridges-quits-will-leave-parliament-in-coming-weeks/V3L6FUWZNJXKJQWFD2Q4J5WJ3Y/

    He's done 30 years as part of the froth. Ephemeral is as ephemeral does…

    • tc 5.1
      16 March 2022 at 1:26 pm

      Maybe a top quality media project like pullya benefits effort.

      Boys club looks after it's own and slimon knows where the skeletons are aside from his own ones eh Jude.

  6. Tiger Mountain 6
    15 March 2022 at 12:51 pm

    Parting is such sweet sorrow

    Soymun might be off to “Choyna” to explain

    • EE 6.1
      15 March 2022 at 4:09 pm

      The thing about Bridges accent was not that it was a bit Westie or Māori,
      it was the smarmy, pompous NZ lawyer accent (think Finlayson)
      that he was trying so hard to emulate.

  7. Siobhan 7
    15 March 2022 at 1:04 pm

    Probably been offered a job as a Shift Manager at Tauranga McDonalds.

    Though actually, as someone who served at the Golden Arches Queen Street with poor old Mark "the-most-tragic-man-in-politics" Thomas at the helm, Simon would actually make quite a 'good' ticks all the corporate boxes manager..

    https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/campaign

  8. roblogic 8
    15 March 2022 at 1:14 pm

    Later SiBri. Simon the Yak farmer seemed like a happier and nicer bloke than the attack dog opposition leader.

  9. Peter 9
    15 March 2022 at 1:20 pm

    I remember the radio interview about the donations to National. The talk about candidates going to candidates' school. Bridges trying to distance the party from a person said to be tied up in donations problems.

    Bridges trying to say the person wasn't a member of the party. "But if he wasn't a party member how could he go to the candidates's school?"

    An exercise in experienced prevarication. He dithered enough and wouldn't reply sensibly. Anyone who had mastered Janet&John Book 1 or Ready to Read: The Hungry Lambs would have clearly concluded that he was bullshitting.

  10. ghostwhowalksnz 10
    15 March 2022 at 1:22 pm

    Has the evidence for the upcoming 'salami donations' case mean he was much more than yum cha

  11. Christopher Randal 11
    15 March 2022 at 1:35 pm

    Simple Simon met a pieman,

    Going to the fair;

    Says Simple Simon to the pieman,

    Let me taste your ware.

    Says the pieman to Simple Simon,

    Show me first your penny;

    Says Simple Simon to the pieman,

    Indeed I have not any.

  12. Tricledrown 12
    15 March 2022 at 2:17 pm

    No future in the National Party he will be picked up by ANZ most likely ,John Key connections.

    Better pay less stress no doubt .

    • ghostwhowalksnz 12.1
      15 March 2022 at 4:36 pm

      Facebook or Google are more likely . As they like these political types for their lobbying operation

    • tc 13.1
      16 March 2022 at 1:30 pm

      Could be one of those 'dog ate my homework' styled legal response perhaps and pffft it's gone away magically.

    • Incognito 14.1
      15 March 2022 at 6:33 pm

      Your point?

      • Peter 14.1.1
        15 March 2022 at 6:47 pm

        Maybe the point was to put something up that people could take their own point from.

        Like putting a flower in a vase. I mean what's the point of that? Oh, I see, it's up to the beholder.

        • Incognito 14.1.1.1
          15 March 2022 at 8:27 pm

          Oh, I see, you come here to ‘decorate’ TS with YT clips without actually making any actual relevant point yourself for debate or something like that under a dedicated Post. Is TS now some kind of gallery for YT ‘art’? If you love decorating this political blog site so much why don’t you start your own floral blog site where you can decorate to your heart’s content?

          • Peter 14.1.1.1.1
            15 March 2022 at 8:49 pm

            I'm sure there'll be someone who looks at the lyrics and sees some political relevance somewhere in there.

            Go on, give it a go.

            [Read the site’s Policy and this Moderation note here from Lprent: https://thestandard.org.nz/no-appeasement-with-russia-over-invasion/#comment-1867795.

            The onus is on you to make a point or state an opinion of your own, for example, that can be debated here. Don’t act like a lazy git. If you want to post surrealism art you’re in the wrong blog.

            This is your warning – Incognito]

            • Incognito 14.1.1.1.1.1
              15 March 2022 at 9:13 pm

              Mod note for you.

            • Red Blooded One 14.1.1.1.1.2
              16 March 2022 at 7:52 am

              Cheers Peter, I got a smile from those lyrics, as a Northlander I know the Burning Bridges aren't 10 of Simons double laned promised bridges. I'm not sure though he will recognize all those wasted years and opportunity's.

              • Peter …
                16 March 2022 at 4:38 pm

                The lyrics in the circumstances are like an anthem. We certainly do recognise the lack of double lane bridges and the wasted years and opportunities on our Northland roads.

                Some tried to help him find a job, when he got it he didn't want to go. But history happened. I'm sure with all the burning memories he keeps thinking what a fool he's been, he thought he could win.

  15. Ian 15
    15 March 2022 at 8:33 pm

    Family is everything to me and Simon too by the look of things. What a great way to bow out of politics and give someone else a shot. A bit more maturity and hands on and your comeback is assured