Wouldn’t touch it with a bargepole is an expression indicating extreme dislike and distaste for an object, person or situation. The expression can be used in a similar way to wouldn’t touch her with a 10 foot pole, but is not solely applicable to females; it is even more disparaging when used about a female as it treats her as something less than human. Many bargepoles were 12 or 13 feet long, but one specialised type called a setting boom could be as long as 28 feet! So as you can imagine, wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole means something which you would much rather keep well away from.
“Mate, you want to avoid that one; I wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole!”
Brought to public attention by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in the book on the fall of Richard Nixon, All The President’s Men, ratfucker was Nixon’s term for a political operative who sows chaos among opponents; an agent provocateur. It is thought to have originated among campus political rivalries at USC, and seems to have some usage in the US military.
Along with Nixon’s other ratfuckers, Roger Stone caused fights at otherwise peaceful Democratic Party protests to generate a false narrative that the Democrats were violent and dangerous.