THE UK Independence Party has chosen Bob Edwards to be its prospective parliamentary candidate for the new Central Devon constituency at the next general election.
Mr Edwards, 63, is a former Royal Marines officer, district councillor and five-times mayor of Crediton.
In the 2001 general election he stood in West Devon. Four years later he stood in Tiverton and Honiton. Both times he increased the UKIP vote by a considerable margin.
He says: 'Britain has spent hundreds of years struggling to become a self-governing democracy, only for the three traditional parties to throw it all away in the last 40 years.
'UKIP will return full self-government to Westminster, co-operating with the EU only on matters of mutual concern.
'Far from isolating Britain, this will enable us to rejoin the rest of the world, which is where we traditionally belong, and where our best hope for a satisfying and prosperous future lies. It must be clear to most people that our 36-year membership of the EEC/EU has been far from an unalloyed success.
'In my opinion, a vote for any of the traditional parties will be a vote wasted, because all of them, all of them, are happy to have many of the decisions which affect all of us to be decided in Brussels.'
The new Central Devon constituency takes in Chagford, Drewsteignton, Exbourne, Hatherleigh, Lew Valley, North, and South Tawton as well as parts of Teignbridge and Mid Devon.