{"id":35289,"date":"2021-08-16T10:58:57","date_gmt":"2021-08-16T01:58:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/commentisfree\/2021\/aug\/16\/simon-bridges-memoir-former-new-zealand-national-party-opposition-leader"},"modified":"2021-08-16T10:58:57","modified_gmt":"2021-08-16T01:58:57","slug":"simon-bridges-memoir-reveals-the-candid-funny-vulnerable-person-behind-the-stiff-exterior-steve-braunias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=35289","title":{"rendered":"Simon Bridges\u2019 memoir reveals the candid, funny, vulnerable person behind the stiff exterior | Steve Braunias"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After being ousted as New Zealand opposition leader, Simon Bridges has returned to himself \u2013 a likeable maverick<\/p>\n<p>He walked in the door at the same time as my cat, which heightened the impression that he looked like something the cat dragged in. It was the day after Simon Bridges <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2020\/may\/22\/new-zealand-opposition-to-vote-on-leader-as-polling-shows-party-at-near-record-low\">had been rolled as leader of the National Party<\/a>. I\u2019d sent him a friendly text and he replied that he was in my neck of the woods the next day so maybe a cup of tea might be in order. I put on the jug. The occasion deserved a whiskey or something, but neither of us are social drinkers, or even very social.<\/p>\n<p> <span>Related: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/commentisfree\/2021\/aug\/08\/resolutions-but-no-revolution-as-national-ends-its-annual-conference-as-divided-as-ever\">Resolutions but no revolution as National ends its annual conference as divided as ever<\/a> <\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/commentisfree\/2021\/aug\/16\/simon-bridges-memoir-former-new-zealand-national-party-opposition-leader\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After being ousted as New Zealand opposition leader, Simon Bridges has returned to himself \u2013 a likeable maverickHe walked in the door at the same time as my cat, which heightened the impression that he looked like something the cat dragged in. It was t&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1570,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[41,56,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-new-zealand","category-world-news"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1570"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35289"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35290,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35289\/revisions\/35290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}