Convicted fraudster and arch-remainer Denis MacShane is bemoaning the lack of impact of his allies. The sometime Le Monde correspondent asks his friends “Are we too peaceful?”

The Francophile looks to the policy changing possibilities of Gilets jaunes style violence. He really does prefer continental ways…

“Denis MacShane Put His Finger Up My Bum” was perhaps an unexpected headline and return to the public eye of a regular Guido focus of interest. In media news Guardian Axes Paul Mason’s Column and James O’Brien Too Much For Newsnight proved even left-of-centre media can tire of polemicists. Dave on Hot Mic: Brexit Has Turned Out Less Badly Than We Thought was a concession from the former PM that perhaps Project Fear (Version 1) was over done.

Thousands of Doctors On Ski Trips During ‘Winter Crisis’, surely doesn’t help “Our NHS”, it was a popular story followed up on tabloid front pages. A real zinger from Fraser Burns Polly.

In an increasingly difficult to understand alternative gendered reality, watch as a Feminist Fight Club Vows to Destroy Tories and Smash Patriarchy yet Labour Suspend Campaigner to Keep All Women Shortlists Real Over “Women Don’t Have Dicks” Tweet. Labour MP Debbie Abrahams was rendered Speechless at McDonnell’s Violent Misogyny.

Interesting article on sexual harassment in the Guardian today from Laura Kipnis, author of Unwanted Advances. She tells the story of one of her own #MeToo moments, at the hands of an aspiring politician:

“The culprit was a future MP and Europe minister, the friend of a friend. We were in a group of people heading into a restaurant, and this guy, later to become so politically illustrious, who was walking behind me, and whom I’d met maybe 10 minutes before, reached forward and goosed me.

By goosed, I don’t mean he touched me on my butt, but in my butt, through the thin skirt I was wearing. I turned around and glared at him – I was young, jetlagged, and confused. Was this customary in Britain? What he’d done felt humiliating. I turned ahead and resolutely kept walking, whereupon he did it again.

Law locks up the parliamentarian
Who claimed for laptops and translation
But he’s shameless and worse
Despite stealing from the public purse

— Guido Fawkes (@GuidoFawkes) October 19, 2017

Guido’s 140 character effort in response to the convicted fraudster and former MP’s tweet took 3 minutes to compose and it shows. Can co-conspirators do better?

You might want to sit down before you read this. Denis MacShane has written an opinion piece for CityAM laying into politicians who fiddle their expenses. Yes, that’s the convicted expenses fraudster Denis MacShane. Criticising politicians who cheat the taxpayer. You couldn’t make this up.

“The revelations that Francois Fillon has been using parliamentary funds to pay his wife and family are now getting so strong and so reeking that it is hard to see how he can continue. Fillon portrayed himself as Monsieur Irréprochable, France’s Mr Clean, and now he has been infected by the English MPs’ disease of putting wives, sons and daughters on the parliamentary payroll.

But Marine Le Pen has similar problems. Yesterday, the European Parliament demanded she pay back €300,000 she took in parliamentary expenses and used to pay two associates who did party political work. She is up to her ears in dodgy loans from Kremlin controlled banks and any spotlight on exotic political money changing hands catches her in its beam.”

“Reeking” misuse of parliamentary funds? “Infected by the English MPs’ disease“? “Dodgy” deals and “exotic political money changing hands”? Is MacShane on a wind up?

The disgraced crook was jailed for making £13,000 of bogus expenses claims – he got away with fiddling even more. He was guilty of filing a total of 19 fake expenses receipts. At the Old Bailey Mr Justice Sweeney said of MacShane’s crimes:

“The dishonesty involved was considerable and was repeated many times over a long period. The deception used was calculated and designed to avoid suspicion falling on your claims.”

And now this convicted fraudster is shamelessly writing lofty newspaper columns lambasting expense fiddlers?  Next week – Rolf Harris on childcare…

Avisa Partners is a Brussels lobbying firm which claims to be different: “we insist on telling the truth”, “Lawyers respect us for what we do and how we do it”. Well one of their partners has spent a lot of time with lawyers before he went to jail for fraud. Guido would dispute that Denis Macshane insists on telling the truth, now or then.

His resume understandably glosses over his period served at Her Majesty’s Pleasure and focuses on his time as Her Majesty’s Minister for Europe. What caught Guido’s eye was the claim that MacShane coined the term “Brexit”Odd that these experts do not know that it is generally accepted that in 2012 Ebrahim Rahbari, an economist at Citigroup, coined the term “Grexit” to refer to the potential Greek exit from the €uro. “Brexit” came into circulation immediately afterwards. Guido would be keen to see evidence that Denis made prior use of the term. Have emailed MacShane, as yet, to no avail…