A statement about Stephanie Hayden.

In January I became aware that Ms Hayden (who monitors this account despite being blocked) had made a series of defamatory allegations about myself and my wife.

The allegations were made on Twitter, via Hayden’s account, and were widely retweeted.

The allegations were that as a result of her making a police complaint, (1) the police were seeking to urgently speak to me.
Furthermore (2) that police has spoken to me on 26/12/20 and offered some kind of “robust” advice about my conduct on and off line.

Finally (3) that police attended my home address in November, where my wife mislead them as to my whereabouts.
Hayden commented about this at length on Twitter, said that both and I am my wife had lied, and that I had even given a false address in Hampshire.
I said at the time all the allegations were false.

The police “complaint” was nothing more than Hayden making yet another vexatious complaint to the police, as Hayden routinely does.

The police did not speak to me on 26/12/20, as alleged, or at all.
I have not given a false address to the police and the police did not attend my home address and did not speak to my wife.

I made it clear a mistake has been made and Hayden was acting unwisely to repeat allegations which were unfounded.
Eventually I managed to speak to the officer in charge of Hayden’s complaint. She was highly efficient and very helpful. She offered no advice beyond general observations about social media - which I thanked her for and said she was welcome to her opinion.
She told me however that Hayden had been spoken to and told (1) to stop provoking rows on Twitter and then complaining to the police about them, and (2) the alleged visit was now being looked into because it appeared there could be a mistake.
I also wrote to Hayden and warned that a mistake had been made and the allegations Hayden was making were unwise. He was also told by the OiC that mistake was possible. Hayden responded in typical fashion by repeating the allegation, and copying-in my Inn of Court @middletemple.
Furthermore, Hayden cited the core duties that Barristers must adhere to (not a problem Hayden will ever to worry about), specifically the duty to act with honesty and integrity.
I have today received the following apology from the police for its mistake. It speaks for itself. There was no visit to my address and my wife was never spoken to.
I have today written to following email to Hayden (who has already replied saying that I am engaged in harassment by emailing and asking for the allegations to be deleted).
Apologies for the typos - I can’t find my glasses!

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I just finished Eric Adler's The Battle of the Classics, and wanted to say something about Joel Christiansen's review linked below. I am not sure what motivates the review (I speculate a bit below), but it gives a very misleading impression of the book. 1/x


The meat of the criticism is that the history Adler gives is insufficiently critical. Adler describes a few figures who had a great influence on how the modern US university was formed. It's certainly critical: it focuses on the social Darwinism of these figures. 2/x

Other insinuations and suggestions in the review seem wildly off the mark, distorted, or inappropriate-- for example, that the book is clickbaity (it is scholarly) or conservative (hardly) or connected to the events at the Capitol (give me a break). 3/x

The core question: in what sense is classics inherently racist? Classics is old. On Adler's account, it begins in ancient Rome and is revived in the Renaissance. Slavery (Christiansen's primary concern) is also very old. Let's say classics is an education for slaveowners. 4/x

It's worth remembering that literacy itself is elite throughout most of this history. Literacy is, then, also the education of slaveowners. We can honor oral and musical traditions without denying that literacy is, generally, good. 5/x