Collateral is a fine word, yet add to it ‘damage’ and you have a not very nice development. It suggests something happening beyond the act that was committed. So the collateral damage of a divorce might be that your children refuse to talk to you. Fortunately, as a two-times divorcee I have not suffered this affront. But if I did it would fall into the category of ‘collateral damage’.
‘Unintended damage’ might be another way of describing what also happens when something happens. ‘Regretful damage’. ‘Unfortunate damage’. Or, as Mr Cameron and