desktop files not working for recent ubuntu?

[Rusi]

I have this emacs.desktop file put in ~/.local/share/applications

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[Desktop Entry]
Name=EmacsClient
GenericName=Text Editor
Comment=Edit text
MimeType=text/english;text/plain;text/x-makefile;text/x-c++hdr;text/x-c++src;text/x-chdr;text/x-csrc;text/x-java;text/x-moc;text/x-pascal;text/x-tcl;text/x-tex;application/x-shellscript;text/x-c;text/x-c++;
Exec=emacsclient -n -a emacs %F
Icon=python
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Categories=Development;TextEditor;
StartupWMClass=Emacs 

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Currently this laptop is on ubuntu 16.4 (xenial) -- vanilla unity desktop
It used to work ok in earlier ubuntus
Now on 16.4 it shows 2 emacs icons when editing a file via emacsclient
Clicking the second icon shows no effect
After about 10 seconds it disappears

Dont know when it stopped working because frankly I am not much of a 
nautilus -> click -> emacsclient type of user

Current generation -- my students -- however default to this kind of usage
And so they default to one or both of
- gedit by default
- zillions of emacses open for each file they clicked