Stephen Pollard

Stephen Pollard (born 18 December 1964) is a British author and journalist.

In 1993, Pollard worked for the Fabian Society.

In 1996, he joined the Social Market Foundation.

He then worked at the Daily Express, leaving in 2001.

In his final article for the paper, he used the first letter of every paragraph to spell out the phrase "Fuck you Desmond".

He has been a political columnist with The Times and the Daily Mail as well as writing for The Independent and Sunday Telegraph.

Pollard supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq, while acknowledging failures in reconstruction.

In 2005, Pollard was a Senior Fellow at Civitas.

In 2007, he was president for the Centre for the New Europe.

In 2007, it was announced that he would be the first chair of the European Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism.

Stephen Pollard started at the Evening Standard.

From 2008 until December 2021, he was the editor of The Jewish Chronicle and remains a senior advisor and writer on the paper.

Pollard had what he calls a "normal, nominally orthodox north-west London Jewish upbringing".

His childhood dream was to become a barrister.

He attended Mansfield College, Oxford at the same time as Michael Gove.

He was a researcher for Labour MP Peter Shore.

In November 2008, he became editor of The Jewish Chronicle.

As editor, he referred to the paper as "Israel's candid friend."

In September 2010, Stephen Pollard and The Spectator apologised and paid damages and costs to the organisers of the Islam Expo conference, in a defamation case involving a blog post written by Pollard and published in July 2008.

The apology regretted the suggestion that "Islam Expo Limited is a fascist party dedicated to genocide which organised a conference with a racist and genocidal programme" and accepted that "Islam Expo's purpose is to provide a neutral and broad-based platform for debate on issues relating to Muslims and Islam."

Pollard is a supporter of Britain leaving the European Union and praised the Conservative Party's 2019 manifesto.

He was a signatory founder of the Henry Jackson Society, a neoconservative British foreign policy think tank.

He says that he began to think about Judaism seriously and to feel loyalty to Israel in his mid-thirties.

Pollard has called Amnesty International a "woke joke" and accused them of allying with "groups that lionise Islamist terrorists."

He has also written that "Amnesty is a worthless, morally bankrupt sham that gives succour to terrorist states."

He has criticised Stop the War Coalition as "traitors" and criticised their opposition to the invasions of Iraq and of Afghanistan.

During his editorship, as of October 2020, the Press Complaints Commission and its successor IPSO have made fourteen rulings against the paper.

The publication has also been forced to pay damages for libel on several occasions throughout his tenure.

It was announced in April 2020 that the paper was going into voluntary liquidation, despite a planned merger with Jewish News, announced in February 2020.

Pollard resigned to join a consortium bidding for the publication's assets.

The bid was successful and retained Pollard as editor.

As of 2023, he writes frequently for the Daily Express, and also writes for the Daily Mail, The Sun and The Daily Telegraph.

Pollard is an advocate of market-based public service reforms.

He believes that "the state has no business running schools or hospitals" and "I object to the fact I have to pay for (the BBC)".

He has advocated the introduction of medical co-payments for the National Health Service and the introduction of a flat tax.

He expressed support for Chancellor George Osborne's decision to limit child benefits, writing that "Welfare is thought of as an entitlement, so that those who choose not to work to support themselves can rely on the rest of us to pay their way."

He has praised Rupert Murdoch as "a man who has done more to democratise news, sport and leisure than any of his opponents."