What is this current craze with putting '-gate' on the end of any political scandal? I cringe when I hear 'datagate' and 'donorgate'. They sound, frankly, ridiculous, as if they as words are trying to be cool - and failing miserably. I caught part of a political programme a couple of days ago and one woman was talking about 'donorgate' and I literally cringed. It sounded just plain silly.
We all know about Watergate. In that case, the word pulls it off nicely, mainly because it wasn't surrounded by other words aspiring to be it, and it earned its significance as a point in history (will there be any blockbuster movies about Labour donations? I mean, really?) But why does every single scandal become a '-gate' these days? I don't think, personally, you can make a judgement about the significance of anything - whether it makes or breaks a person or a party - until you are in the realms of hindsight, where history is the true judge.
But mainly I just think the words sound silly.
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