Editing Colin Jordan (section)

==Leading activist==
{{Neo-Nazism sidebar|people}}
In 1962, Jordan founded the [[National Socialist Movement (UK, 1962)|National Socialist Movement]] (renamed the [[British Movement]] in 1968) with [[John Tyndall (far-right activist)|John Tyndall]] as its leader. A meeting in [[Trafalgar Square]] on 2 July 1962<ref name="CJC">{{Cite news |date=1962-07-13 |title=Leader of British national socialists suspended from teaching job |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=883&dat=19620713&id=WeJOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Z0wDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5644,3016549 |work=[[The Canadian Jewish Chronicle]] |location=Montreal |page=12 |language=en-CA |via=[[Google News Archive]] |volume=L |issue=2 |agency=[[Jewish Telegraphic Agency]]}}</ref> of supporters was disrupted by opponents, whom Jordan described as being "[[Jews]] and [[Communists]]",<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.macearchive.org/films/midlands-news-05071962-colin-jordan-interview |title=Midlands News: 05.07.1962: Colin Jordan Interview |date=1962-07-05 |type=Television production |language=en-GB |publisher=Midlands News |via=[[Media Archive for Central England]]}}</ref> leading to a riot. He was dismissed by the board of governors of the Coventry school where he taught<ref name="Times"/> in August 1962 after a period of suspension<ref>{{Cite news |date=1962-08-30 |title=Colin Jordan to lose teaching job |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19620830&id=-ptAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=l6MMAAAAIBAJ&pg=6413,7811070 |work=[[The Glasgow Herald]] |page=7 |language=en-GB |via=[[Google News Archive]] |issue=185 |issn=0965-9439}}</ref> that had begun after the events in Trafalgar Square.<ref name="CJC"/>

In August 1962 Jordan hosted an international conference of Nazis at [[Guiting Power]] in [[Gloucestershire]], which resulted in the formation of the [[World Union of National Socialists]]. Jordan was the commander of its European section throughout the 1960s and was also elected "World Führer" with [[George Lincoln Rockwell]], founder of the [[American Nazi Party]], as his deputy.{{sfn|Sykes|2005|p=101}} On 16 August Jordan and Tyndall, together with [[Martin Webster]], [[Denis Pirie]] and Roland Kerr-Ritchie, were charged under the [[Public Order Act 1936]] with attempting to set up a paramilitary force{{sfn|Goodrick-Clarke|2002|p=38}} called the Spearhead, which was modelled on the [[Sturmabteilung|SA]] of [[Nazi Germany]]. Undercover police observed Jordan leading the group in military manoeuvres.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Botsford |first=David |date=1998 |title=British fascism and the measures taken against it by the British state |url=http://www.libertarian.co.uk/lapubs/histn/histn028.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040726195314/http://www.libertarian.co.uk/lapubs/histn/histn028.pdf |archive-date=2004-07-26 |magazine=Historical Notes |publisher=[[Libertarian Alliance]] |language=en-GB |issue=28 |isbn=1-85637-397-5 |issn=0267-7105}}</ref> He was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment in October 1962.<ref name="Times"/><ref>{{Cite news |last=Hightower |first=John M. |date=1962-10-15 |title=Jail ordered for 4 Britons |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1338&dat=19621015&id=t61YAAAAIBAJ&sjid=TfcDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4951,3772976 |work=[[Spokane Daily Chronicle]] |page=2 |language=en-US |via=[[Google News Archive]] |issue=21 |issn=2992-9873 |agency=[[Associated Press]]}}</ref>

On 5 October 1963, while [[John Tyndall (far-right activist)|John Tyndall]] was still in prison, Jordan, who had just been released, married Tyndall's fiancée, [[Françoise Dior]], the former wife of a French nobleman and the niece of the French fashion designer [[Christian Dior]]. This hasty marriage was ostensibly to prevent her deportation as an undesirable alien. When Tyndall was eventually released, the marriage caused friction, and he split with Jordan in 1964 to form the [[Greater Britain Movement]]. Jordan's marriage to Dior proved short-lived, though, and she announced the couple's separation in January 1964. She claimed that Jordan had become "bourgeois".<ref>{{Cite news |date=1964-01-09 |title=Mrs Jordan confirms separation |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1300&dat=19640109&id=TaIQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=pJUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4107,991706 |work=[[The Age]] |location=Melbourne |page=4 |language=en-AU |via=[[Google News Archive]] |issue=33906 |issn=0312-6307}}</ref> The couple nevertheless remained married until their divorce in 1967.<ref>[https://acearchive.org/colin-jordan]</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=April 2025}}{{Dead link|date=April 2025|fix-attempted=yes}}

During the [[1965 Leyton by-election|Leyton by-election]] of 1965 Jordan led a group of about 100 fascist demonstrators at a public [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] meeting, and after taking to the stage to berate the audience he was punched by [[Denis Healey]], the then [[Secretary of State for Defence]].<ref name="telegraph">{{cite news |date=2009-04-27 |title=Colin Jordan |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/5232116/Colin-Jordan.html |url-access=subscription |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |location=London |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235}}</ref> The fracas came about because the far right was using the [[by-election]] to stir up interracial hatred in order to defeat the Labour candidate (and [[Foreign Secretary (United Kingdom)|Foreign Secretary]]) [[Patrick Gordon Walker]]. He had previously been defeated in the [[1964 United Kingdom general election|1964 general election]] in the [[Smethwick]] constituency after racist campaigning tactics<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Goodwin |first=Clayton |date=October 2004 |title="If you want a nigger for a neighbour vote Liberal or Labour" |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5391/is_200410/ai_n21358424/?tag=content;col1 |magazine=[[New African]] |location=London |language=en-GB |via=Find Articles |issn=0142-9345}}</ref>{{Dead link|date=April 2025|fix-attempted=yes}} were employed by Colin Jordan and his followers.{{sfn|Jackson|2016|p=129}} Specifically, Jordan claimed that his group produced the much publicised "If you want a [[nigger]] for a neighbour, vote [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] or Labour" slogan and launched the campaign to circulate the posters and stickers which the slogan was written on; in the past Jordan's group had also written and circulated other campaign slogans, such as: "Don't vote – a vote for Tory, Labour or Liberal is a vote for more [[Black people|Blacks]]!".{{sfn|Jackson|2016|p=129}} The successful [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] candidate was [[Peter Griffiths]], who did little to condemn the campaign. On 25 January 1967, Jordan was sentenced to eighteen months in prison at Devon Assizes in Exeter for breaking the [[Race Relations Act 1965]] by circulating material that was likely to cause racial hatred.<ref name="GHerald">{{Cite news |date=1967-01-26 |title=Colin Jordan sent to prison for 18 months on Race Act charges |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19670126&id=pmNAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=g6MMAAAAIBAJ&pg=3637,4009089 |work=[[The Glasgow Herald]] |page=7 |language=en-GB |via=[[Google News Archive]] |issue=312 |issn=0965-9439}}</ref> At the same time, Jordan was prosecuted and convicted under the Public Order Act 1936 for distributing a leaflet titled "The Coloured Invasion", "a vituperative attack on black and Asian people".<ref name="Times" /><ref name="GHerald" />

In September 1972, Jordan was fined for disorderly behaviour at Heathrow Airport when, after protesting against the arrival of [[Ugandan Asians]] into Britain, he addressed airport staff through a loudspeaker, urging them to strike in protest against mass immigration from Uganda.<ref>{{cite news |date=1972-09-14 |title=Colin Jordan fined over airport protest |url=https://www.thetimes.com/archive/article/1972-09-14/4/12.html#start%3D1972-09-14%26end%3D1972-09-15%26terms%3Dcolin%20jordan%26back%3D/tto/archive/find/colin+jordan/w:1972-09-14%7E1972-09-15/1 |url-access=subscription |access-date=2020-03-27 |work=[[The Times]] |location=London |page=4 |language=en-GB |issn=0140-0460}}</ref>

Jordan reorganised the National Socialist Movement as the British Movement in 1968, but in 1974 he was obliged to step down from its leadership in favour of [[Michael McLaughlin (activist)|Michael McLaughlin]]. His demise was further accelerated by his arrest and subsequent conviction for [[shoplifting]] three pairs of women's red knickers from [[Tesco]]'s [[Leamington Spa]]<ref name="telegraph"/> branch in June 1975. Magistrates fined him £50 for the offence.<ref name="Gable"/><ref name="McKittrick"/>

While leader of the British Movement, Jordan stood for [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|parliament]] on three occasions: in the [[1969 Birmingham Ladywood by-election]] (282 votes, 3.0%); [[Birmingham Aston]] in the [[1970 United Kingdom general election|1970 general election]] (704 votes, 2.5%) and [[Wolverhampton North East]] in the [[February 1974 United Kingdom general election|February 1974 general election]] (711 votes, 1.5%).<ref>{{cite book |last=Craig |first=Frederick Walter Scott |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dA6xCwAAQBAJ&q=wolverhampton+north+east+1974+jordan&pg=PA7 |title=Minor Parties at British Parliamentary Elections 1885–1974 |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |year=1975 |isbn=978-1-349-02348-6 |page=7 |language=en |via=[[Google Books]] |accessdate=2021-10-01}}</ref>