Simon says the weirdest things – Ardern is apparently like Trump

Written By: - Date published: 8:16 am, September 17th, 2018 - 42 comments
Categories: internet, interweb, jacinda ardern, labour, Media, national, Politics, same old national, Simon Bridges, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, twitter, you couldn't make this shit up - Tags:

National’s latest attempt at winning the political debate is to engage in white noise.  Say things loudly and continuously and hope that the media follow course.

The last few days have shown the latest iteration of this tactic.  Get the media to question why Jacinda Ardern is not appearing on TV as often as the networks would like.  It was abundantly clear a few days ago that there had been a snafu and that Jacinda was going to spend the morning preparing to give one of the most important speeches of her career.  Rather than shying away from media attention she was preparing to go centre stage.

And news of the speech broke a few days ago.  I do not understand why elements of the media persisted with the criticism.

Then after Jacinda’s speech Simon Bridges appeared.  Fresh from participating in a protest that an unsafe road in Tauranga had not been upgraded, and yes it should be and he should complain to the local MP and the Government responsible for the past decade of neglect, he berated Ardern for being Trump like.

From Newshub:

Comparing Jacinda Ardern to US President Donald Trump, National leader Simon Bridges has blasted the Prime Minister’s speech on Sunday as a waste of time.

Ms Ardern promised to deliver a “major speech” in Auckland that would set “out a comprehensive set of priorities” for the Government.

But the National Party leader said she instead simply delivered a “rah-rah speech” that failed to live up to the hype.

“They think that a photo op 10 months in is a substitute for a plan and an ability to improve the lives of New Zealanders. It’s not,” he said.

…

Mr Bridges said the speech was a desperate plea by the Prime Minister to show a united Government after weeks of questions around cracks showing in the coalition.

The Prime Minister has been attempting to brush off concerns that New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has been trying to make a power-play over employment law changes, the refugee quota and Crown-Maori relations.

“This was a lost opportunity for Ms Ardern to admit her mistakes, acknowledge the cracks in her coalition and focus on policies that will genuinely benefit New Zealand,” he said. “Instead, we’ve been given a show designed to distract from her weak leadership and lack of new ideas”.

He went on to compare the speech to a TED Talk which “shows a Trump-like attempt to avoid tough questions with a stage-managed pep rally and carefully vetted questions”.

How valid is the criticism?  Well apart from them both being bipedal mammals I can’t think of two people who are more different.  One of them has a heart as well as a brain.

Granted they do both speak to crowds from time to time.  One releases a tirade of fear mongering hate, the type which Bridges and his ilk normally approve of.

The other yesterday gave a precise succinct overview of the first 12 months of her rule as Prime Minister and a pledge about measurement of progress against announced policies.

But where was the detail the independent commentators on twitter thundered?

Jacinda did this really strange thing.  There is this thing called the interweb and it allows you to put information there and anyone with access to the interweb can then access that information.  This means you don’t have to give a four hour speech and people can check in the future what you promised.  You can give a half hour speech and access to a detailed plan all at the same time!

But Bridges and Co’s attempts are essentially spray and walk away.  Creation of critical noise just because they can.

Alex Coleman has the best summary:

And there seems to be an element of spontaneous coordination.

42 comments on “Simon says the weirdest things – Ardern is apparently like Trump ”

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  1. Chris T 1
    17 September 2018 at 8:29 am

    Bit of a stupid comment from Soimun

    The event was slogans, cheesy and staged, but all these political events are.

    There is no politician in the country that goes near Trump

    The only one even remotely like Trump would be Winston with his anti Asian, anti immigration etc, and his slagging off of the media.

    And even that is a stretch

    Trump is a one of a kind

    • Dennis Frank 1.1
      17 September 2018 at 9:49 am

      I’m guessing he meant both the staging/theatre design of the event, plus the “`rah-rah speech’ that failed to live up to the hype” as regards our expectations of the announcement of a legislative program. He just failed to explain that sufficiently.

      I presume she selected an audience of coalition insiders to ensure there was no heckling. And her advocacy of the nebulous 12-point plan was to provide a sense of legislation to come rather than a prescription or action-program. Presumably a year of familiarity of the psychodynamics of the coalition has induced a pragmatic gnosis that only a `make it up as you going along’ approach can work. Herding the cats is too hard for anything more organised.

      • McFlock 1.1.1
        17 September 2018 at 10:38 am

        Charitable guess for soimon, and no surprises there.

        I think he simply meant that he’s aware people like her more than they like him. If your opponent has popularity they’re a “demagogue”, if you have popularity you’re a “people’s choice for leader”. If you use big words you’re “acute and on the ball”, if your opponent uses big words they’re “ivory tower intellectuals”.

        That’s the level the tories are still operating on. Nothing in their criticism actually criticised a specific policy that was being implemented.

      • Gabby 1.1.2
        17 September 2018 at 11:51 am

        What does the Cheerman think franky?

  2. Paul Campbell 2
    17 September 2018 at 8:36 am

    So says the guy who thinks that an image of him leading stuffed horses is a great PR move – real leadership means being able to deal with real people, not stuffed dummies

  3. cleangreen 3
    17 September 2018 at 8:41 am

    Yes Micky;

    Simple Simon (‘no’ ten Bridges’) has now made himself look even more than ever stupid again for the many multiple times since he became ‘the poster boy for the John Key fan club.’

    Someone should tell Simon Bridges to shut up!!! as he may ruin national’s chance to topple the new Government in 2020 and just give the Coalition Government yet more ammunition..

    Or maybe!!!!! – we should leave him to continue to run off his mouth.

    • Johnr 3.1
      17 September 2018 at 1:43 pm

      Our work is over 90% business to business, so for my sins, I interact with an awful lot of national voters. None of whom rate Slimen Bridges.
      I enjoy reminding them that he is Jacindas secret weapon.
      They freely admit that there is no-one else capable of supplanting him from the current national MPs

  4. Reality 4
    17 September 2018 at 8:43 am

    Soimon Bridges is a very very strange and unappealing person. Quite why he is not subject to attacks and critiquing from the media says it all as to the unbalanced reporting we are subject to.

    Yesterday’s speech by our PM let us see her excellent communication skills. Could Soimon Bridges have done that without everyone wanting to pull their hair in despair and desperation.

  5. roy cartland 5
    17 September 2018 at 8:53 am

    The whole strategy of the Nats is defunct. Oh it’ll go on working for a while, but eventually wither.

    The funniest thing is that they shriek about ‘chaos’ if different parties have different priorities. Gone are the days of Key where it was the agenda of one person surrounded by 60-odd flunkies. Now they have nothing, and it shows.

  6. Reality 6
    17 September 2018 at 9:03 am

    Actually, it is Soimon who is Trumplike, given the ridiculous and desperate nonsense that he spouts. Let us never forget he has a very bad temper also. Remember one of his early tv interviews when he really lost his cool and was particularly nasty?

    • cleangreen 6.1
      17 September 2018 at 11:44 am

      Reality; you said “Remember one of his early tv interviews when he really lost his cool and was particularly nasty?”

      Can we get that site of where that clip of him (bridges) was loosing his cool, as it needs to be aired eternally now.

      Especially since Simon (no bridges) is trying to act so cool and collected.

      • Reality 6.1.1
        17 September 2018 at 3:47 pm

        Cleangreen, the interview in question was on TV3 14 October 2013. He was being questioned by John Campbell. I see it was written about on The Standard also. Bridges was appalling.

        Guyon Espiner had an article in The Listener on 24 October 2013. What a surprise reading back. Espiner has had a right wing transformation since then.

      • Fireblade 6.1.2
        17 September 2018 at 4:03 pm

        Here’s the 16 minutes of angry sleazy Simon from 2013.

  7. D'Esterre 7
    17 September 2018 at 9:09 am

    Bridges still sounds like a petulant adolescent. I can’t take seriously anything he says, so I leap for the “off” button whenever he’s on radio, ditto when he’s on TV.

    The msm continues to do what it did when the unlamented former dear leader was PM; bias rules. I don’t know why any of us would expect anything different.

    These journos are the same ones who report uncritically the most egregious bollix coming out of the overseas msm. Analysis… critique… What’s that? There isn’t a foreign affairs specialist among the lot of ’em.

    And – from what I’ve seen and heard – a paucity of people who have any real skills or experience as political journalists, either.

    • Bewildered 7.1
      17 September 2018 at 6:04 pm

      Agree re Simon but Cindy also has that impact on me, reach for the off button that is, let me be clear, absolutely, wax’s lyrical but says nothing

  8. Kat 8
    17 September 2018 at 9:22 am

    Bridges should continue to be shown up as being irrelevant. The more air time Bridges gets the more he comes across as a sore loser offering nothing but empty criticisms. The usual sycophants in the media are setting the anti coalition narrative and one that Bridges gleefully embraces, they however can change their tune in a blink but Bridges can’t.

  9. veutoviper 9
    17 September 2018 at 9:33 am

    mickysavage, the link under the words “put information here” in the para in your post quoted below seems to try to go to a site called “www.behive.govt.nz” without success – note the spelling of beehive…

    “Jacinda did this really strange thing. There is this thing called the interweb and it allows you to put information there and anyone with access to the interweb can then access that information.

    Presumably you meant this link – https://www.beehive.govt.nz/feature/our-plan-modern-new-zealand-we-can-all-be-proud

    and/or these ones of Winston and Ardern’s speeches –

    https://www.beehive.govt.nz/speech/opening-remarks-government-priorities-launch

    https://www.beehive.govt.nz/speech/our-plan-modern-and-prosperous-new-zealand

    It is a pity that the videos are also not on the Beehive site. So while I am at it, for anyone on Facebook, here is a link to the entire video of over an hour.
    https://www.facebook.com/jacindaardern/videos/432959830565195/

    and also JA’s pre-speech short video and post speech video with James Shaw

    Pre — https://www.facebook.com/jacindaardern/videos/236405370378350/

    Post —https://www.facebook.com/jacindaardern/videos/258135881506033/

    These should be up on YouTube soon if not already, for those not on Facebook.
    Will try to find them later if I have a chance, and post links.

    Personally, I really recommend people watch the Panel section towards the end of the full video, as to me the question and answer session gave a really good feel for the coalition working together with JA and Robertson joined by Tracey Martin and James Shaw to answer questions.

    Sorry, not trying to divert from main themes of post, but link is important.

    ‘

  10. Muttonbird 10
    17 September 2018 at 11:30 am

    Tracey Watkins even had a picture of Trump in her Ardern hit piece last night.

    Pretty blatant.

    • cleangreen 10.1
      17 September 2018 at 11:50 am

      Muttonbird;

      Was that Tracey Watkins beginning her climb on the ladder of fortune “dirty politics” paymaster?

  11. Stuart Munro 11
    17 September 2018 at 11:59 am

    There are certainly two things they have in common – they both have a large and loyal following, and in both cases their opposition struggles to make headway against them.

    Bridges though – desperate much? I’m not sure if he’s the Gnat’s last gasp, or merely their last Si.

  12. Dukeofurl 12
    17 September 2018 at 12:00 pm

    “Fresh from participating in a protest that an unsafe road in Tauranga had not been upgraded,”

    Thats because all the money in the Region went on new bypasses. When I lived in Rotorua national announced a ‘new bypass’ just before the 2014 election. Even had detailed engineering drawings of overpasses etc so wasnt just a line on a map.
    Guess what , after the election the bypass was cancelled- probably was a good idea to do so as it just made he trip airport faster which is no big deal in Rotorua.

    All the money on RONs came from reducing the spending on regional upgrades, but didnt stop them from promising ‘new highways’ in the regions that wouldnt be built.

    At the core of the increase in road deaths and injuries is bad driving and reducing spending on police traffic patrols. They were even going to remove police officers who concentrate on heavy vehicle inspections such as logging trucks. Go figure as these are over represented in road crashes.

    • In Vino 12.1
      17 September 2018 at 7:39 pm

      Absolutely true. And they trumpeted the great move of lowering the alcohol limit. But I checked out France, New South Wales and the other places they quoted, and it soon became clear that what lowered accident and death rates was NOT lowering the limits – it was increasing the number of checkpoints. They pushed the law-change through here (no cost, easy..) but then showed their true colours.
      They underfunded the Police like all other social services, and the number of alcohol checkpoints dropped, instead of increasing.
      As a result of the last National Govt’s so-called ‘economic management’, NZ now has the distinction of being the only country to lower alcohol limits, and then see an increase in the number of alcohol-related accidents and deaths afterwards.
      National’s reputation for good economic management should be slated and reviled because of outcomes like this, but the media tell nobody.

  13. Delia 13
    17 September 2018 at 1:53 pm

    He should test his own judgement, the Minister for Transport in the National govt and he should be publicly beating himself up over the road not being fixed, not the year old Labour coalition.

  14. Marshy 14
    17 September 2018 at 2:16 pm

    Geez you lefties are a sad little bunch of snipey individuals. Apart from your rather pathetic ‘soimon’ moniker , you actually failed to see what his point was. The weekend was just a vacuous talk fest from a dysfunctional leadership to prove it actually wasn’t. And failed to deliver any arguments against that view. So comparing to Trump wasnt too far of the mark

    • veutoviper 14.1
      17 September 2018 at 2:34 pm

      So why waste your time commenting here?

      I bet you that Ardern and Peters are still leaders of their parties – and still in the Coalition Government and in power – long after Bridges hits the deck as Leader of National. LOL

      Ditto for Shaw and Davidson in the Green Party.

      • veutoviper 14.1.1
        17 September 2018 at 4:12 pm

        I better clarify that I mean Shaw and Davidson will also be co-Leaders well after Bridges is gone as Leader. Realised what I had written could have been read wrongly!

    • Ken 14.2
      17 September 2018 at 6:16 pm

      Marshy:
      Soimun’s road trip was what?

    • Incognito 14.3
      17 September 2018 at 8:49 pm

      Trump could never do a Tweet that long; his adrenal glands would be totally depleted.

  15. SPC 15
    17 September 2018 at 3:20 pm

    “What we’ve got sort of 10, 11 months, nearly a year in, is platitudes, when there are real issues that are hurting New Zealanders,” Mr Bridges told The AM Show.

    “There’s an economic downturn – and let me just get this one in, it’s really important – is cost of living right at the moment is going up higher than wages.”

    According to Statistics NZ the consumer price index rose 1.5 percent in the year to June, while income from wages and salaries was up 4 percent.

    From Newshub
    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2018/09/winston-peters-will-pull-the-pin-if-he-doesn-t-get-his-way-peter-dunne.html

    Simon Bridges exposed for the liar that he is, either a deliberate lie or mouthing off ignorant of the facts – too lazy too check out or too dumb to organise staff to prove the facts to him before he talks to the media.

    I’m going with deliberate lie to misled the public, given the number of National MP’s parroting the same lie about the cost of the free years tertiarty study.

  16. SPC 16
    17 September 2018 at 3:25 pm

    Mr Dunne said if Mr Peters doesn’t get his way, he’ll “pull the pin” and take down the Government.

    “He’s done it before and he’ll do it again. [Ms Ardern’s] not prepared to risk that, and consequently she’s his hostage.”

    Also from Newshub. same link

    Not in 2005-2008, so Dunne thinks what happened in 1998 was taking down the government – more a case of Shipley taking out Bolger and then borrowing members of the NZF caucus to remain in government sans Peters.

  17. AB 17
    17 September 2018 at 3:33 pm

    Trump resemblances among NZ politicians:
    1.) John Key due to his appetite for alternative facts, self-contradictions and seemingly creepy attitude to women with ponytails
    2.) Rob Muldoon for being physically repellent, a truculent bully and mobilising the authoritarian conservatives of “Rob’s Mob”
    3.) Roger Douglas for his tendency towards hyperbole, wild exaggeration, unfounded optimism and doing the opposite of what he promised. Oh – and ignorance of economics.
    4.) Jacinda Ardern – um, err, wtf!

    But as a total package no-one comes close. And I can’t think of an NZ politician who surrounded themselves with venal crooks the way Trump has. Maybe someone in the 19th century, but my NZ history is not strong enough for me to know.
    This is a fun game Simon started – but I think his opening hand was a bit, shall we say, weak.

  18. Bill 18
    17 September 2018 at 4:53 pm

    He (Bridges) did get the TEDTalks comparison right enough – I don’t know how anyone could avoid a TED Talk seminar coming to their mind. 🙂

    But the Trump comparison?

    Well, this isn’t what Simon meant, but Trump’s administration and Ardern’s government offer the same level of threat to the cozy liberal status quo that’s been doing us over these past decades. None.

    Both promised change, and both will deliver 5/8ths of sfa on that front.

    • Kat 18.1
      17 September 2018 at 5:15 pm

      “Ardern’s govt” according to many commentators doesn’t exist, it’s Winston’s govt.

      Just shows to go how interesting the next couple of years are going to be should Ardern deliver. Must be wonderful having that magic crystal ball insight into the future.

    • Bewildered 18.2
      17 September 2018 at 6:07 pm

      Agree Bill Barring the coalition will do more harm than good, so from your world view will make a shit situation worse

  19. Jum 19
    17 September 2018 at 7:26 pm

    ‘ I do not understand why elements of the media persisted with the criticism.’

    Micky, Micky, Micky, the media is owned by greed.
    Once you understand that simple premise, you can start to mobilise other strengths.

  20. Andrea 20
    17 September 2018 at 8:32 pm

    It must be something in the general national psyche – ‘winners and losers’ ‘Strong leadership so we don’t have to either think or question’

    For me, this is NOT a ‘Labour govenment’ – nor is it an Ardern government. It’s our first true MMP government and, so far, it’s doing not too badly on creating the blueprint of how to do this without killing any of the supporting players. While dealing with the fall out from the last nine years of hands-off tag-along, do as we’re told by the money blokes ‘management’.

    For all those craving ‘strong’ leadership – c’mon, kiddies – to where do you wish to be led? Who needs the jut-jaw bombast and posing that you are missing so much? Is Australia’s Liberal party sooo appealing for you? Should sheilas know their proper place in politics – propping up a Real Family Man with True Kiwi Values who has trouble picking a decent tie and holding a conversation without cliches?

    Is that what you want, bubbies? Just another version of The Footy Game? A Dream Team drawn from the line-up on the far right of Attila the Hun? The old tried and true – and look where it’s got us?

    Your strong, wise business geniuses got us Mainzeal and redundancies and small companies being ripped off. Great, eh?

    Time for a TED talk on much better ways to run the country – followed by putting it into action. (The Reluctant Right aren’t strong on action. Scary.)

  21. R.P Mcmurphy 21
    17 September 2018 at 9:00 pm

    get real.
    this government is going away from the pack.
    nobody is going to let bridges and his gang of minions anywhere near the treasury benches until Jacinda has had enough.
    their mentality is just not up to the job.

  22. Inky 22
    18 September 2018 at 10:23 pm

    Bridges is desperation personified. We know he hasn’t got it and by now so do the Nats. Every minute longer he stays in the role the better it is for the Government. I vote give him the job for life.