Stephen Pollard
Encyclopedia
Stephen Pollard is a British author and journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, currently editor of The Jewish Chronicle
The Jewish Chronicle
The Jewish Chronicle is a London-based Jewish newspaper. Founded in 1841, it is the oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the world.-Publication data and readership figures:...
. He is a former Chairman of the European Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism
European Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism
The European Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism was established in 2007 as a think-tank to examine the growth and development of antisemitism in the world today and to explore new strategies for countering this age-old hatred in all its forms.-2009 Report on Anti-Semitism:The...
and a former president of the Centre for the New Europe
Centre for the New Europe
The Centre for the New Europe was a free-market think tank based in Brussels, and focused on EU issues such as economic growth, managing environmental change, health and welfare policy, competition policy, and innovation...
, a free-market think tank
Think tank
A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...
based in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
. He has written columns for several publications, including The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
and the Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
, and also maintains a blog.
Pollard is an alumnus
Alumnus
An alumnus , according to the American Heritage Dictionary, is "a graduate of a school, college, or university." An alumnus can also be a former member, employee, contributor or inmate as well as a former student. In addition, an alumna is "a female graduate or former student of a school, college,...
of John Lyon School
John Lyon School
The John Lyon School is an academically selective independent boys' school in Harrow on the Hill, Middlesex. The school was founded in 1876 by the Governors of Harrow School for the education of local boys, in belated keeping with the wishes of that school's founder, from whom the school takes its...
and Mansfield College, Oxford
Mansfield College, Oxford
Mansfield College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Of the colleges that accept both undergraduate and graduate students Mansfield College is one of the smallest, comprising approximately 210 undergraduates, 130 graduates, 35 visiting students and 50...
.
He is an advocate of market-based public service reforms. He is also a frequent commentator on Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, and a critic of Jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
ist movements.
Career
Formerly a journalist and leader-writer on the Daily ExpressDaily Express
The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...
, Stephen Pollard left that paper in 2001 soon after it was taken over by Richard Desmond
Richard Desmond
Richard Clive Desmond is an English publisher and businessman. He is the owner of Express Newspapers and founder in 1974 of Northern & Shell, which publishes various celebrity magazines, such as OK! and New!, and British national newspapers Daily Star and Daily Express...
, a publisher of pornographic magazines, who began implementing radical cutbacks. Pollard's last leader for the paper, on the problems of the British farming industry, turned out to contain the words "Fuck you, Desmond" spelt out with the first letter of each sentence. A standing job offer at The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
was withdrawn as they considered the acrostic
Acrostic
An acrostic is a poem or other form of writing in which the first letter, syllable or word of each line, paragraph or other recurring feature in the text spells out a word or a message. As a form of constrained writing, an acrostic can be used as a mnemonic device to aid memory retrieval. A famous...
in the article to be "unacceptable" and "insulting".
After early articles for the Fabian Review in 1993 (e.g. "More Southern Discomfort", discussing ways by which the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
could reform itself sufficiently to regain power), Stephen Pollard's career has seen a fair degree of political movement from Left to Right; he was formerly an advisor to anti-EU Labour politician Peter Shore
Peter Shore
Peter David Shore, Baron Shore of Stepney PC was a British Labour politician and former Cabinet Minister, noted in part for his opposition to the United Kingdom's entry into the European Economic Community. His idiosyncratic left-wing nationalism led to comparison with the French politician...
.
Pollard was one of the signatory founders, in 2005, of the Henry Jackson Society
Henry Jackson Society
The Henry Jackson Society is a non-partisan association. The society's goals include the promotion of "democratic geopolitics". The society is named after after Henry M. Jackson, the late Democratic Senator from Washington State...
, which advocates a proactive approach to the spread of liberal democracy
Liberal democracy
Liberal democracy, also known as constitutional democracy, is a common form of representative democracy. According to the principles of liberal democracy, elections should be free and fair, and the political process should be competitive...
across the world.
By 2006, Pollard held the view that, in the "battle to save western civilisation", the "Left, in any recognisable form, is now the enemy". His biography of Labour Party politician David Blunkett
David Blunkett
David Blunkett is a British Labour Party politician and the Member of Parliament for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough, having represented Sheffield Brightside from 1987 to 2010...
, with the subject's involvement, was published in 2004.
In November 2008, Pollard became editor of The Jewish Chronicle
The Jewish Chronicle
The Jewish Chronicle is a London-based Jewish newspaper. Founded in 1841, it is the oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the world.-Publication data and readership figures:...
. In his 2009 New York Times review of a book by Bruce Bawer
Bruce Bawer
Bruce Bawer is an American literary critic, writer and poet. His work focuses mainly on criticism and issues related to Islam.-Personal life:Bawer received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D...
, Pollard endorsed the notion that "liberal appeasement" is paving the way for a "replacement" of European civilization by radical Islamist ideology. Pollard has argued that the Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Palestine Solidarity Campaign
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign is a campaign in the United Kingdom promoting solidarity with the Palestinian people. It was founded in 1982 during the build-up to Israel's invasion of Lebanon.The campaign states:...
has tipped over to antisemitism and the defence of attacks on Jews. Writing about the disruption of an appearance by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra is the leading symphony orchestra in Israel. It was originally known as the Palestine Orchestra, and in Hebrew as התזמורת הסימפונית הארץ ישראלית The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (abbreviation IPO; Hebrew: התזמורת הפילהרמונית הישראלית, ha-Tizmoret ha-Filharmonit...
on 1 September 2011 at the BBC Proms
The Proms
The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in London...
he asserted that the actions of pro-Palestinian activists had a "chilling air" reminiscent of "the way Nazi party members broke up meetings" in Weimar Germany.