Stephen Pollard (born 18 December 1964) is a British author and journalist. 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.[1] He attended Mansfield College, Oxford at the same time as Michael Gove.[2]
Stephen Pollard started at the Evening Standard.[1] 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".[7][8][9]
In November 2008, he became editor of The Jewish Chronicle.[10] As editor, he referred to the paper as "Israel's candid friend."[11]
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."[12]
During his editorship, as of October 2020, the Press Complaints Commission and its successor IPSO have made fourteen rulings against the paper.[13][14] The publication has also been forced to pay damages for libel on several occasions throughout his tenure.[15][16][17][18][19]
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.[20] Pollard resigned to join a consortium bidding for the publication's assets.[21] 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.[22]
Pollard is an advocate of market-based public service reforms.[23] He believes that "the state has no business running schools or hospitals"[24] and "I object to the fact I have to pay for (the BBC)".[1] He has advocated the introduction of medical co-payments for the National Health Service and the introduction of a flat tax.[23][25] 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."[26] He has praised Rupert Murdoch as "a man who has done more to democratise news, sport and leisure than any of his opponents."[27]
Pollard says that he began to think about Judaism seriously and to feel loyalty to Israel in his mid-thirties.[1] Pollard has called Amnesty International a "woke joke" and accused them of allying with "groups that lionise Islamist terrorists."[32] He has also written that "Amnesty is a worthless, morally bankrupt sham that gives succour to terrorist states."[33]
^"...[The West's] failures in the former Yugoslavia (especially Bosnia) were more than just moral. Through their impact on the credibility of our international institutions, such as NATO and the EU, they had a profound effect on the national interests of western powers. These fiascos showed that we had to engage, robustly and sometimes preventatively. The early interventions in Kosovo and Sierra Leone, although imperfect, provide an appropriate model for future action." The Henry Jackson Society's Statement of PrinciplesArchived 8 August 2010 at the Wayback Machine
