Perhaps he was just a bit desperate for some attention being that the headlines haven’t be very flattering for the National Party lately.
His belief that misleading the public and police was a good idea was clearly misplaced.
Yesterday, the NZ Herald reported:
Simon Bridges witnesses 'gang fight' in hospital carpark - police dismiss gang link
"Patched" gang members today took over the entrance to Tauranga Hospital and were involved in someone being "badly beaten up" in the nearby carpark, National MP Simon Bridges claims.
Bridges has taken to social media with an experience he said he witnessed after going to visit his elderly father at the hospital this afternoon.,
On a post to Twitter, he wrote: "Patched gang members had taken over the entrance and someone was being badly beaten up in the carpark in a gang fight."
In a further post, he wrote: "I say this because so many want to downplay this gang thuggery and violence. There have always been gangs but nothing like what we see today.
"It is at epidemic proportions."
A police spokesperson said they were called to a "report of disorder" at the Tauranga Hospital carpark at 3.15pm.
Police said it followed an incident where "a motorist was involved in some sort of altercation with a couple in the car park".
"One police unit attended, spoke to the parties involved and advised there were no issues."
The police spokesperson said initially that there was nothing on their file to suggest it was a gang fight.
It also appeared that there were no arrests.
So there was no gang fight. Just a sad politician lying to attain relevance.
Bridges misleading the public into believing that gang violence is becoming worse under a Labour led government just shows how desperate the National Party actually are.
This follows other notable instances of the right wing recently being in the news for all the wrong reasons.
Yesterday, Stuff reported:
When politicians change their minds
EDITORIAL: The National Party has not had a good time recently. If it’s becoming hard for even political pundits to keep track of the gaffes and scandals then spare a thought for the ordinary punters.
A sordid story about former candidate Jake Bezzant has raised questions about vetting procedures, MP Paul Goldsmith has courted controversy with his views on the benefits of colonialism, the leader is outpolled by a retired predecessor and Parliament’s longest-serving MP, Nick Smith, has left for reasons that remain mysterious.
There’s obviously some juicy reporting to be had with a recording of the idiot being abusive as well as a Parliamentary Service inquiry into the incident.
But instead of the scoop all we generally get on the mainstream news is puff pieces about how he changed his bigoted mind over same sex marriage after his son came out of the closet.
Last week, RNZ reported:
Person who recorded Nick Smith's 'verbal altercation' no longer at Parliament
The person who recorded the row between outgoing National MP Nick Smith and a staffer no longer works at Parliament.
After 30 years, Smith abruptly threw in the towel on his political career on Monday, citing the loss of the Nelson seat and a Parliamentary Service inquiry into a "verbal altercation" in his Wellington office.
Smith said the investigation into the spat that happened last July is ongoing and the best course of action was for him to resign.
He was also under the impression details of that inquiry had been leaked and would hit the headlines on Tuesday, but no such story has appeared and it's not clear why he was told one would be coming.
Other than her Wednesday morning media round, National leader Judith Collins has refused to speak to journalists about Smith's resignation and the investigation this week, only responding to written questions through her media team.
RNZ, however, managed to question Collins as she was leaving a kiwifruit pack house in the Bay of Plenty on Thursday afternoon.
She refused to say if she or anyone from her office had advised Smith a media organisation was set to run a story about the investigation.
As well as the usual backstabbing that goes on within the National Party there’s also Jake Bezzant’s sex scandal that’s been undermining Judith Collins as so-called leader of the opposition.
There’s no question that a number of National Party insiders knew all about Bezzant’s abuse. After all there are numerous victims who have now come forward to inform the public about the National Party candidates issues.
But instead of doing something about the creep the National Party chose to turn a blind eye to his depravities, obviously because the right wing is scraping the bottom of the barrel and lacking in any proper and decent candidates.
Last week, RNZ reported:
Judith Collins distances party from former National candidate Jake Bezzant 'and his perversions'
National's leader Judith Collins has ripped into former candidate Jake Bezzant, calling his actions some of the most disgraceful things she has seen while in politics.
National MPs, including the leader, want changes made to the selection process, after allegations the party's former Upper Harbour candidate posted naked pictures of an ex-girlfriend and impersonated her online.
Collins said she only found out about the allegations on Tuesday.
"I had no idea about what he was actually doing and what sort of fantasist, possibly sociopath, he is. I didn't know about him," she said.
She still had confidence in the party's president, Peter Goodfellow.
Peter Goodfellow is the same guy who hand picked Chinese spy Jian Yang to be a National Party MP, so you’ve really got to wonder if Collins’ faith in him is justified?
Of course Yang wasn't the only National Party MP or candidate that has had to leave politics.
Last week, The Standard reported on:
National’s culture problem
On Monday Nick Smith announced his retirement from Parliament. A leak of a Parliamentary Service investigation around “a verbal altercation in [his] Wellington office last July” was getting close to the reporting back stage. And the report was not good. And the Press knew something about it.
…
His disappearance adds to a growing list of National MPs and candidates who disappeared under a cloud because of what appears to be inappropriate behaviour. Remember the following?
Richard Worth and what was it that he did which so incensed the Malaysian Government;
Pansy Wong who resigned after her husband was caught conducting business when accompanying her on a Ministerial trip to China;
Mike Sabin whose activities Cameron Slater said were almost too horrible for words;
Don’t you know who I am Aaron Gilmour who also had CV accuracy problems;
Claudette Hauiti who used her parliamentary charge card for a Christmas trip to Australia and spent approximately $23,000 on MP’s expenses after she had announced she was standing down;
John Key’s ponytail pulling fetish;
The police investigation into Todd Barclay and his use of personal recording devices;
Bill English’s mischaracterisation of the truth relating to his police statement;
The complaints by four women about Jami-Lee Ross’s behaviour;
Andrew Falloon’s resignation for depression caused by the drunken sending of inappropriate graphic material to a woman who was not his wife and was a teenager;
Michelle Boag who stood down from all party positions because of the leaking to National MPs of confidential personal health information;
Sarah Dowie who in her valedictory speech said that she would claw at the windows or walk across hot coals to get out of the National Caucus;
Hamish Walker who was willing to trash the Country’s covid response for political advantage and who racistly claimed that Indians, Pakistanis and Koreans some infected with Covid were on their way to Queenstown while at the same time sending confidential medical information to the media;
National’s Palmerston North candidate William Wood who had photos of himself on Social Media impersonating Hitler.
I can’t be sure that I have captured everyone. But to that impressive list we can add Smith and Bezzant and I suspect Hipango’s employment relations practices will come back to haunt her.
All of this makes the National Party unelectable, especially while people like Peter Goodfellow are continuing to select candidates. He appears to be going out of his way to find people without morals in the vain belief that National can cover up their transgressions...and if that's not a losing strategy, I don't know what is.
