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Louise Mensch
Louise Mensch in 2015
Member of Parliament for Corby
In office 6 May 2010 – 29 August 2012
Preceded by	Phil Hope
Succeeded by	Andy Sawford
Majority	1,951 (3.6%)
Personal details
Born	Louise Daphne Bagshawe (1971-06-28) 28 June 1971 (age 53) London, England
Political party	Conservative (1985-1996 and since 1997)
Other political affiliations	Labour (1996-1997)
Spouse(s)	Anthony LoCicero ​ ​(m. 2000; div. 2009)​ Peter Mensch ​(m. 2011)​
Children	3
Relatives	Tilly Bagshawe (sister)
Residence(s)	New York City, US
Alma mater	Christ Church, Oxford
Profession	Writer

Louise Daphne Mensch (née Bagshawe; born 28 June 1971) is an English author and independent journalist. She was the Conservative MP for Corby from 2010 to 2012.

Early life

Mensch was born in London, England, the daughter of Nicholas Wilfrid Bagshawe and Daphne Margaret Triggs, and was raised a Catholic. Her great-grandfather was Victorian artist Joseph Ridgard Bagshawe. She was educated at Beechwood Sacred Heart School, Tunbridge Wells, and Woldingham School, a Catholic girls' boarding school in Surrey. She read English Language and Literature at Christ Church, Oxford and was Secretary of the Oxford Union.

She has a brother and two sisters, one of whom, Tilly, is a freelance journalist and author.

Writing and journalism

At age 18, Mensch was named Young Poet of the Year. Following a six-month internship at MTV Europe she worked as a press officer with EMI Records, and then as a marketing official for Sony Music.

Under her maiden name, Louise Bagshawe, she wrote in the chick lit fiction genre, publishing seventeen works which sold a total of over 2 million copies. Her first novel, Career Girls, was published in 1995. Her sister, Tilly Bagshawe, has also published works in the genre. In her role as an MP, Louise Mensch was denigrated for her work as an author of fiction intended for a female audience. Mensch is an outspoken advocate of the genre and has stated that it encourages girls to be ambitious. Reflecting on her books, she stated, “All of them feature feminist heroines making it on their own. I simply couldn’t write about some drippy Cinderella because I don’t admire those women.”

After leaving Parliament, Louise Mensch began working as an independent journalist and also wrote articles for several newspapers, including the The Times and The Sun. In May 2014, she started developing new digital projects for News Corporation, including Heat Street, a libertarian news, opinion and commentary website. On Heat Street, Mensch interviewed Adam Baldwin regarding the movement involved in the Gamergate controversy, claiming that it was Baldwin who created the Gamergate hashtag to "describe the scandal of falsely accused young men", and suggesting it is hashtag that "divided the feminists – like me – and the fauxminists".

Political career

With parents who were active in the party, Mensch had joined the Conservatives when she was 14. Subsequently, in 1996, she switched to the Labour Party, saying she believed Tony Blair to be "socially liberal but an economic Tory". By 1997 she had returned to the Conservatives, helped her mother, Daphne, win a seat in East Sussex County Council from the Liberal Democrats, and campaigned in the 1997, 2001 and 2005 general elections. In 2001, Mensch co-founded the Oxonian Society, later renamed the Hudson Union Society, with Joseph Pascal and Princess Badiya bint El Hassan of Jordan.

Conservative party leader David Cameron placed Louise Mensch on his "A-List" of Conservative candidates in 2006. In October 2006 she was selected to stand in the constituency of Corby, which she won in the 2010 general election with a majority of 1,951, defeating Labour incumbent Phil Hope. In June 2010 she was elected by other Conservative MPs to serve on the Select Committee for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.

Murdoch phone hacking affair

On 19 July 2011, in the hearings of the House of Commons Select Committee for Culture, Media and Sport, Mensch interrogated James and Rupert Murdoch concerning their roles in the News of the World phone hacking scandal.

Political blogger Bagehot in The Economist named Mensch as the "surprise star" of the hearing, writing that her "sharp, precise, coolly scornful questions" contrasted with her "waffling, pompous" fellow committee members, and citing her clever confrontation of the Murdoch's. In the course of the hearings, Mensch erroneously stated that Piers Morgan had written in his autobiography about conducting phone hacking while he was the editor of the Daily Mirror. When challenged on CNN by Morgan, Mensch cited the protection of parliamentary privilege and declined either to withdraw the allegation or to repeat it. She later apologised to Morgan and stated that she had misread a newspaper report about Morgan's book.

Three days after the hearing, Mensch received an email that alleged, among other things, that she had taken drugs and danced while drunk with violinist Nigel Kennedy at a club in Birmingham in the 1990s. Mensch publicly released the email, stating that the allegations were "highly probable" but said that she regretted only that others had to see her dancing and that she would not be deterred from asking further questions about phone hacking. Members of the Parliamentary committee denounced the attempt to intimidate Ms. Mensch, who subsequently admitted using class A drugs in The Sunday Times.

The Culture, Media and Sport select committee finalised its report in April 2012. Mensch disagreed publicly with Tom Watson and Paul Farrelly, two Labour members of the committee, over whether the conclusion that Rupert Murdoch was unfit to run an international company, had been discussed before Watson tabled a Commons amendment on 30 April. Mensch and the other three Conservative members of the committee had opposed it, and could not support the report with the MP herself saying the report had become "partisan" as a result of the statement's inclusion. Mensch insisted on Newsnight on 2 May that it had not been discussed and was not part of its remit. Watson later accused Mensch of tabling pro-Murdoch amendments which would have "exonerated" James Murdoch in the report and, in Twitter exchanges with her, alleged private committee conversations had been leaked to News Corp.

Resignation

On 6 August 2012, Mensch announced her decision to resign as the MP for Corby to spend more time with her family in New York City. Mensch had appeared likely to be promoted in the expected September government reshuffle. She told her local newspaper that she had intended to stand down at the next election, but brought the date forward as she was concerned her children would be too settled in Britain by then. She was appointed to the nominal position of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead on 29 August 2012, thus vacating her seat.

Regulation of social networking websites

Following the rioting in England Mensch called for social media services Twitter and Facebook to be shut down or to "take an hour off" during disturbances to stop the spread of false rumours wasting police resources. She compared the action with brief interruptions to road and rail networks during emergencies. However, other Twitter users compared such action to the online censorship of regimes such as Iran and China, whilst Sussex police said they had used Twitter to stop rumours.

In June 2012, a man was given a 26-week prison sentence suspended for two years for sending Mensch an offensive and threatening email including threats against her children. Following his conviction, Mensch called for networking sites to identify anonymous bullies saying it was impossible for the victim to ascertain the seriousness of the threat posed, while the bullies felt they could do as they pleased without fear of retribution.

Cyberbullying

In May 2012, Mensch used her Twitter account to condemn abusive and threatening tweets that she had received, describing them as "misogyny and bullying". The tweets were subsequently reported in the mainstream press, and she drew praise and support from for drawing attention to the issue from twitter users as well as public figures such as Jeremy Vine and Isabel Hardman.

In May 2015, after that year's general election, Mensch was accused of cyberbullying Abby Tomlinson, the teenaged leader of the 'Milifandom'. Mensch denied the accusation, asserting that she had only criticised Tomlinson. Shortly afterwards, she wrote a 4,000-word blog entry to reiterate that she had not bullied Tomlinson and made new assertions about the sixth-form student.

Commentary on the 2016 U.S. Presidential election

FISA warrant claim

In November 2016, Heat Street published an article titled “EXCLUSIVE: FBI 'Granted FISA Warrant' Covering Trump Camp's Ties To Russia”, written by Mensch. This article claimed that the alleged FISA warrant giving permission to investigate the Trump campaign, was granted in October 2016, in "connection with the investigation of suspected activity between the server and two banks, SVB Bank and Alfa Bank." The article also alleged that "it is thought in the intelligence community that the warrant covers any ‘US person’ connected to this investigation, and thus covers Donald Trump and at least three further men."

The BBC and the Guardian later separately published similar stories corroborating Mensch's scoop, with the Guardian stating it confirmed that "the Mensch and BBC account of the Fisa warrants was correct." In March, 2017, the Trump administration cited The Heat Street and BBC stories as evidence for Trump's claims on twitter that President Obama had ilegally wiretapped his phones. This claim was examined by factcheck.org, which found it to be false. According to the Washington Post however, the BBC's account differed substantially from that of Mensch, since the BBC alleged that: "Neither Mr Trump nor his associates are named in the FISA order, which would only cover foreign citizens or foreign entities — in this case the Russian banks." The Post stated that since no major US outlet has been able to confirm the existence of "a FISA warrant related to the Trump campaign," despite months of effort, "one has to take this claim with a huge dose of skepticism." The server itself, the Post noted that the server may have actually been located in Philadelphia and that, according to the FBI, the server traffic between the Trump Organization and two Russian banks could be explained by "marketing emails or spam."

Comments on Trump and Russia

During and after after the 2016 US presidential election, Mensch's political commentary has been criticized for promoting conspiracy theories about the Russian government, Donald Trump and people in Trump's circle.

Mensch stated that President Obama should have responded with "precision bombing raids" and "massive cyber war" in response to Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.

Internet ventures

In June 2012, Louise Mensch joined forces with former Labour digital adviser Luke Bozier to set up a social networking website – a politics-based rival to Twitter. The site, named Menshn – pronounced "mention" – allowed users to select their topic of interest. Mensch hoped to raise venture capital finance. After its launch, Mumsnet made Mensch a featured blogger on its blog network. The site was initially criticised by IT industry experts for using http instead of secure https to communicate passwords. Bozier disputed this claim, but the site switched to the secure protocol. Menshn closed in February 2013.

After the closure of Menshn, Louise Mensch announced she was setting up a style and fashion blog called Unfashionista. The website was covered widely in the British press and received mixed reviews. One of Mensch's pieces on Unfashionista was a reaction to allegedly sexist comments by Nobel Prize winner Tim Hunt. After researching the backgrounds of various people involved in the luncheon at which he spoke, Mensch wrote an exhaustive blog post criticizing the ethics of Connie St Louis, Deborah Blum and Ivan Oransky, the first three journalists to condemn Hunt's speech.

Personal life

In 2000, she married Italian-American real estate developer Anthony LoCicero. They have three children, but separated in 2009. The marriage ended in divorce. In June 2011, she married music manager Peter Mensch, whom she had first met twenty years earlier. They reside in New York City.

Louise Mensch is diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which made her realise she was "self medicating" with wine for stress, and she has now almost completely given up alcohol. She also commented that taking hard drugs in the 1990s "messed with brain and had long-term mental health effects."

Bibliography

Novels

Writing as Louise Bagshawe:

• Career Girls (1995)
• The Movie (1996) aka Triple Feature
• Tall Poppies (1997)
• Venus Envy (1998)
• A Kept Woman (2000) aka For All the Wrong Reasons
• When She Was Bad... (2001)
• The Devil You Know (2003)
• Monday's Child (2004) aka The Go–To Girl
• Tuesday's Child (2005)
• Sparkles (2006)
• Glamour (2007)
• Glitz (2008)
• Passion (2009)
• Desire (2010)
• Destiny (2011)

Writing as Louise Mensch:

• Beauty (2014)
• Career Game (2015)

Anthology

• Five Romantic Reads (2005; with Donna Hay, Laura Wolf, Jane Elizabeth Varley and Stella Chaplin)

References

1. Gimson, Andrew (12 August 2012). "Louise Mensch: writing herself out of the Tory story". The Guardian. London, England.
2. ^ Borger, Julian (17 February 2017). "Louise Mensch: the former British MP who scooped US media on Trump's Russian ties". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 March 2017.
3. ^ "Louise Mensch to quit as an MP, triggering Corby by-election". BBC News. 6 August 2012.
4. "Marriages". The Times. 23 September 1969. p. 12.
5. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3518812/My-haven-Novelist-former-Tory-MP-Louise-Mensch-44-sitting-room-home-Manhattan.html
6. Who's Who 2011, A & C Black, 2011
7. "Louise Mensch (Ex-MP)". parliamentaryrecord.com.
8. Profile in The Independent 5 May 2012
9. Scott, Caroline (6 March 2005). "Relative Values: Tilly and Louise Bagshawe". The Sunday Times. London, England.
10. ^ Barnett, Laura. "The sneering 'chick lit' label that dogs female authors". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 March 2017.
11. ^ King, Victoria (29 July 2011). "Tory MP Louise Mensch 'probably took drugs in club'". BBC News.
12. Barnett, Laura. "The sneering 'chick lit' label that dogs female authors". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 March 2017.
13. Scott, Caroline (6 March 2005). "Relative Values: Tilly and Louise Bagshawe". The Sunday Times. London.
14. Mensch, Louise (8 July 2011). "Chick-lit doesn't damage its readers, it just makes them raise their standards". The Daily Telegraph. London, England.
15. Blake, Meredith. "WENDI MURDOCH, CHICK-LIT HEROINE?". The New Yorker. Retrieved 28 March 2017.
16. "'Last Ship' Star Adam Baldwin on Gamergate, Twitter Censorship and Hollywood". Heat Street. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
17. ^ Bernstein, Jon (4 October 2011). "The Politics Interview – Louise Mensch". New Statesman.
18. "He sees women as equals". The Guardian. London, England. 19 April 2006.
19. "Louise Mensch – Profile". Conservatives.com.
20. "Today's Leaders, Tomorrow's Ideas. HUDSON UNION SOCIETY™". Hudson Union Society.
21. "Be Inspired, Change Our World™". Hudsonunionsociety.com. Retrieved 14 July 2014.
22. "'Beautiful' Tory list under fire". BBC News. 19 April 2006.
23. "'Chick-lit' author to stand at next general election". Northampton Chronicle & Echo. 13 October 2006.
24. "Rupert and James Murdoch before Parliament". The Economist Blog. 19 July 2011.
25. Swaine, Jon (20 July 2011). "Phone hacking: Piers Morgan in on-air hacking row with Louise Mensch". The Daily Telegraph. London, England.
26. "MP Mensch apologises to Piers Morgan for hacking slur". BBC News. 29 July 2011.
27. King, Victoria. "Tory MP Louise Mensch 'probably took drugs in club'". BBC News.
28. Sanchez, Raf (29 July 2011). "Louise Mensch releases email allegations made by journalist". The Daily Telegraph. London, England.
29. ^ d'Ancona, Matthew (2 February 2012). "Iron maiden". GQ. London, England.
30. "Louise Mensch comes clean on Morgan, drugs and bad dancing". 4 News. 29 July 2011.
31. Buckland, Lucy (7 November 2011). "Class A drugs caused me long-term mental damage: Tory MP Louise Mensch's candid confession". Daily Mail.
32. "Phone-hacking report 'partisan' – Tory MP Louise Mensch". BBC News. 1 May 2012.
33. Deans, Jason; Plunkett, John (1 May 2012). "Phone hacking: select committee report unveiled". The Guardian Blog. London, England.
34. "Was Rupert Murdoch's 'fitness' to run News Corp discussed?". BBC News. 2 May 2012.
35. Wintour, Patrick; Sabbagh, Dan; Halliday, Josh (2 May 2012). "Phone-hacking: MPs clash over when Murdoch criticisms were discussed". The Guardian. London, England.
36. O'Carroll, Lisa (3 May 2012). "Tom Watson accuses Louise Mensch of tabling pro-Murdoch amendments". The Guardian. London, England.
37. O'Carroll, Lisa (3 May 2012). "News Corp was given private committee details, suggests Tom Watson". The Guardian. London, England.
38. ^ Prince, Rosa (6 August 2012). "Louise Mensch MP quits to care for young family". The Daily Telegraph. London, England.
39. ^ Beckford, Martin (12 August 2011). "Louise Mensch MP calls for Twitter and Facebook blackout during riots". The Daily Telegraph. London, England.
40. "Louise Mensch internet troll banned from contacting General Petraeus and Lord Sugar". The Daily Telegraph. London, England. 11 June 2012.
41. "Louise Mensch: social networks must identify internet bullies who cower behind anonymity". The Daily Telegraph. London, England. 13 June 2012.
42. "Louise Mensch MP exposes shameful bullying of women on Twitter after personal attacks". The Daily Telegraph. London, England. 2 May 2012.
43. Jackson, Jasper (19 May 2015). "Louise Mensch accused of bullying Milifandom leader on Twitter". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
44. Nelson, Sara C. (21 May 2015). "Louise Mensch Backs Down After 'Harrassing' [sic] #Milifandom Student Abby Tomlinson". The Huffington Poast. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
45. Nelson, Sara C. (21 May 2015). "Louise Mensch Denies Bullying #Milifandom Teen Abby Tomlinson in 4,000 Word Blog". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
46. ^ Kessler, Glenn. (March 5 2017). "Trump’s ‘evidence’ for Obama wiretap claims relies on sketchy, anonymously sourced reports". Washington Post website Retrieved March 11, 2017.
47. "EXCLUSIVE: FBI 'Granted FISA Warrant' Covering Trump Camp's Ties To Russia". Heat Street. 8 November 2016. Retrieved 19 March 2017.
48. Borger, Julian, "Louise Mensch: the former British MP who scooped US media on Trump's Russian ties", The Guardian, 17 February 2017
49. "Examining Trump's Wiretap Claim". www.factcheck.org. Retrieved 19 March 2017.
50. "In Twitter Tirade, Trump Appears to Cite Exclusive Heat Street Report on FBI / Russia Surveillance Warrant". Heat Street. 4 March 2017. Retrieved 19 March 2017.
51. Lichtblau, Eric; Myers, Steven Lee (31 October 2016). "Investigating Donald Trump, F.B.I. Sees No Clear Link to Russia". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 19 March 2017.
52. Greenwald, Glenn. "Leading Putin Critic Warns of Xenophobic Conspiracy Theories Drowning U.S. Discourse and Helping Trump". The Intercept. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
53. "Louise Mensch claims she has evidence that the founder of Breitbart was murdered by Russian agents". The Independent. 12 March 2017. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
54. ^ Grove, Lloyd (9 March 2017). "Is Conspiracy Queen Louise Mensch Right About Donald Trump?". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
55. "The manic queen of conspiracy". The Times (UK). 3 December 2017. Retrieved 27 March 2017. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
56. Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
57. "What Constitutes Reasonable Mainstream Opinion | Current Affairs". Retrieved 27 March 2017.
58. Kameir, Rawiya (20 June 2012). "Tory MP Louise Mensch launches social network". IT Pro Portal.
59. John, Rapid (21 June 2012). "MP Louise Mensch has launched a microblogging site". rapidberry.net.
60. "Tory MP Louise Mensch launches rival to Twitter". BBC News. 20 June 2012.
61. "There's more to the web than Internet trolls". Mumsnet. 9 April 2013. Retrieved 15 March 2017.
62. Leyden, John (25 June 2012). "Mensch pal Bozier defends Menshn security, dubs critics 'snippy geeks'". The Register.
63. Davenport, Tom (25 June 2012). "New social network Menshn launches in UK with security holes". CNET.
64. Arthur, Charles (6 February 2013). "Menshn closes as founders fall out". The Guardian. London, England.
65. Keller, Emma G (12 February 2013). "Louise Mensch launches fashion website Unfashionista". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
66. Orr, Gillian (13 February 2013). "What now for the Über-Mensch?". The Independent. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
67. Cohen, Claire (13 February 2013). "Louise Mensch: hypocrite, self promoter and now fashion guru". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
68. Kirkova, Deni (24 February 2013). "Louise Mensch, beauty blogger: Ex-Tory MP and self-proclaimed feminist launches controversial site with tips on man-pleasing". Daily Mail. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
69. Higgins, Paula; Waddell, Dan (4 December 2015). "Mensch drags The Guardian into Tim Hunt 'Conspiracy'". Byline. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
70. Foreman, Jonathan (1 September 2015). "The Timothy Hunt Witch Hunt". Commentary. Retrieved 20 March 2017.
71. Bagshawe, Louise (26 August 2008). "Louise Bagshawe: 'Women can have it all - I won't hear any defeatist talk!'". The Telegraph. Retrieved 27 March 2017.
72. Walker, Tim (27 May 2007). "Chick lit Tory candidate Louise Bagshawe splits from husband". The Daily Telegraph. London, England.
73. Singh, Anita (28 October 2012). "Louise Mensch, her hasty husband and two stories of why she threw in the towel". The Daily Telegraph. London, England.
74. Dunbar, Polly; Pringle, Gill (14 November 2012). "Agony for New York wife as British lawmaker who had 20-year affair with and then married her rock-and-roll husband quits UK parliament and pitches up in Manhattan". Daily Mail. London, England.
75. Walker, Tim (3 June 2011). "Tory MP Louise Bagshawe secretly marries Metallica manager Peter Mensch". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 2 June 2011.
76. Carter, Caire (9 May 2013). "Louise Mensch reveals her battle with attention deficit disorder". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 15 May 2016.
77. "Louise Mensch: My mind is messed up after taking hard drugs". 6 July 2012. Retrieved 4 July 2016.
78. "Louise Mensch's class-A drug regrets". Retrieved 4 July 2016.

External links

• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou
• Louise Mensch at IMDb
• Template:Worldcat id
• Louise Mensch on Twitter
• Articles authored as Louise Bagshawe at Journalisted

Template:This Week

• 1971 births
• Living people
• 21st-century Roman Catholics
• Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford
• Anti-Russian sentiment
• British chick lit writers
• British conspiracy theorists
• Conservative Party (UK) MPs
• English bloggers
• English expatriates in the United States
• English feminists
• English Roman Catholics
• Female critics of feminism
• Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
• Viacom Media Networks people
• People associated with the News International phone hacking scandal
• People educated at Beechwood Sacred Heart School
• People educated at Woldingham School
• People with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
• Roman Catholic feminists
• Roman Catholic writers
• The Sun (United Kingdom) people
• The Times people
• UK MPs 2010–15
• Women bloggers
• Writers from London
• 20th-century women writers
• 21st-century women writers
• 21st-century women politicians