'-gate' is the journalistic equivalent of the grey squirrel: ugly, violent, and has driven the superior 'the [X] affair', the humble European red squirrel, into near extinction.
The Notting Hill Gate Gate joke on The Thick of It should have killed it, at least in this country.
Ireland has re-established the red squirrel by encouraging gun clubs to hunt the interloper down. Just putting that out there.
We should bring back "Imbroglio" as the descriptor.
One of the real moments in the defeat of French language purism is that they called it 'Penelopegate' rather than 'l'affair Penelope'.
What about "l'affaire de _"?
See also "Rose Garden" for "The No10 Garden"See also "Rose Garden" for "The No10 Garden"
It also gives people carte blanche to do scandals in places that already have gate suffixes, which is a lot of places in England.
When Henry McLeish got caught up in an offices expenses 'scandal' it was called office gate gate.
