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!

More from For later read

The common understanding of propaganda is that it is intended to brainwash the masses. Supposedly, people get exposed to the same message repeatedly and over time come to believe in whatever nonsense authoritarians want them to believe /1

And yet authoritarians often broadcast silly, unpersuasive propaganda.

Political scientist Haifeng Huang writes that the purpose of propaganda is not to brainwash people, but to instill fear in them /2


When people are bombarded with propaganda everywhere they look, they are reminded of the strength of the regime.

The vast amount of resources authoritarians spend to display their message in every corner of the public square is a costly demonstration of their power /3

In fact, the overt silliness of authoritarian propaganda is part of the point. Propaganda is designed to be silly so that people can instantly recognize it when they see it


Propaganda is intended to instill fear in people, not brainwash them.

The message is: You might not believe in pro-regime values or attitudes. But we will make sure you are too frightened to do anything about it.
Part of what is going on here is that large sectors of evangelicalism are poorly equipped to help people deal with basic struggles, let alone the ubiquitous pornography addictions that most of their men have been enslaved to for years.


On the one hand, there's a high standard of holiness. On the other hand, there's a model of growth that is basically "Try Harder to Mean it More." Identify the relevant scriptural truth & believe it with all of your sincerity so that you may access the Holy Spirit's help to obey.

Helping sincere believers believe and obey the Bible facts is pretty much all the Holy Spirit does these days, other than convict us of our sins in light of the Bible facts.

If you know you are sincere and hate your sin and believe the right Bible facts as hard as you can but continue to be enslaved to your pornography addiction, what else left for you to do? Just Really, Just Really, Just Really Trust God and Give it to Him?

To suggest that there are other strategies available sounds to those formed in this model of growth like one is also suggesting that the Bible is insufficient, but it also suggests something just as threatening- that there are aspects of reality that are not immediately apparent.

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