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Gaffes, Howard - no not at all. If it was not for Charlie then the Port would by now be in the hands of a foreign investor. The Labour government were ready to sign off the deal when they lost office.
As for Gwyn, he was a failure and waste of space. Do nothing and you do not leave any impression of making mistakes, Gwyn's mistake was just that, he did nothing. Look at 2005 and the hospital, the easiest example. Warned by PaulW of a problem he claimed Paul was scarmongering on the basis of what GP was told by officials, GP was lazy enough to just take their word and PaulW was proven right.
Oh, Martin... Not necessarily....I agree with him and using the two particular matters here:
DHB have neglected the seafront, it was SeaChange money that we can thank for half of the promenade, the other half is a mess and ruins the whole, there was no SeaChange cash for that so DHB neglects it. Then there was the privatisation - when you fight and campaign you want to hit the headlines, make waves - using a national icon and colourful language is a way to do that and attract attention. To suggest using the cliffs is a gaff is to ignore the publicity value in the campaign. It was good for the campaign and I would most certainly would have done the same if I was in that position and thought of it!