JONATHAN BEALE:              Things aren't quite what they 
used to be for Cornish Fisherman Mick Mahon. 

MICK MAHON:                      We've got the richest 
fishing grounds in the world around our coasts and we've got a declining 
industry. There's something wrong somewhere and I blame Europe. I used 
to earn a pretty good living at fishing but now I haven't drawn a wage 
out of my boat for four or five months. It's Brussels that's destroyed 
my living. 

BEALE:                    Europe sets the limits for 
his catch. But he wants Britain to take control of his destiny. For him 
and many other fishermen it can mean only one thing.  Leaving the European 
Union.   

MAHON:                    I don't see a future for 
myself and that is why I want out. It's the main reason I'm supporting 
the United Kingdom Independence Party because they want complete withdrawal 
from the Common Fisheries Policy as well as Europe. If we can withdraw 
from the Common Fisheries Policy,  I see a  future for my industry and 
myself. And UKIP is the only party that's offering me that. 

BEALE:                    The decline of traditional 
industries like fishing have given added momentum to the political campaign 
to leave the European Union.  The United Kingdom Independence Party won 
 three seats at last years European Elections - one of them here in the 
South West. But that was with a low turnout and PR - an electoral system 
which favours smaller parties. UKIP is still largely an unknown quantity 
in British politics. It must now prove that it can pose a threat at the 
General Election.                     
BEALE:                        UKIP members aren't 
the only ones who are wondering how well they'll perform. 

ACTUALITY

BEALE:                          Christian Sweeting 
is the Conservative Candidate for Torbay. Europe is an important issue 
here. Visiting a local business he's left in no doubt that  the Tories' 
views on Europe really do count:  
 
CHRISTIAN SWEETING:                What specifically do you 
think your problems will be in this business?

UNNAMED MAN:                    We've already had metrication 
impacting on us whereby legally we're obliged to do it but the customers 
don't want it   

BEALE:                          The Tories lost this 
seat in the last General Election. The Liberal Democrats won with a majority 
of just twelve. But it was UKIP's intervention  - winning nearly two thousand 
votes - that sealed the Conservatives' fate.  
 
SWEETING:                          At the last General 
Election a lot of people went out there and they voted UKIP and they felt 
great about it for five minutes. They socked it to Europe for five minutes. 
At the next election I'm absolutely sure people will leave that ballot 
box having voted for a Conservative Member of Parliament to work for five 
years to maintain British sovereignty and perhaps to try and regain some 
of the things  that are patently obvious that we need to regain in terms 
of powers from Brussels.

ADRIAN LEE:                      One of the things the 
Conservatives are really trying to do is to claw back those voters that 
they see themselves as having lost to the United Kingdom Independence Party 
- to the Referendum Party again in 1997. And it's because the Conservatives 
lost a lot of those voters that actually they lost a number of seats in 
the South West of England - because the Conservative vote had ebbed into 
abstention and it had ebbed into support of UKIP and the Referendum Party. 
Now the Conservatives will be trying like mad to stop that happening again. 


BEALE:                         The race is on.  In 
the red sports car is the UKIP candidate Graham Booth.    The Tory has 
borrowed a British car for the day.  Both want to prove that they only 
have the country's interests at heart.  And they're both competing for 
the Euro sceptic vote. 

GRAHAM BOOTH:                     I've been a lifelong 
Conservative. But I'm afraid for the last five, ten years, seeing the way 
they've been giving everything over to Brussels, and discovering the UK 
Independence Party frankly I'm afraid I've left them and it'll take an 
awful lot for me to go back.

ACTUALITY:                     But the large majority 
would agree that we must withdraw from the European Union.

BEALE:                          UKIP is out in force 
for what was supposed to be a Conservative event. Except for the placards 
it's hard to tell the two sides apart. But they  don't see eye-to-eye. 
  

UNNAMED WOMAN:                 You can't get clearer than 
that ...I will repeat to you again...

BEALE:                          The Tories are not 
going to renegotiate Britain's membership of the EU or advocate withdrawal. 
But William Hague has hardened the party's line on Europe, and it's hoped 
the doubters can be won round.
   
SWEETING:                          What's changed 
nationally about the Conservative Party is that Europe is far more at the 
fore in terms of thinking and policy. The Keep the Pound Campaign for example 
is making our position crystal clear as to where we stand on that issue 
and sovereignty in general.

BEALE:                          The Tory leader is 
in Torbay on his nationwide campaign to save the pound. A boost for the 
local candidate ever eager to show off his party's Euro sceptic credentials. 
 

WILLIAM HAGUE:                     ....in Europe but not 
run by Europe and that wants to keep the pound....
 
BEALE:                          For Graham Booth though 
it simply doesn't go far enough. 

BOOTH:                          The only thing that 
will make me go back to the Conservative Party - and I'd have millions 
coming with me - is if they pinched our policy - that is withdraw from 
the European Union.

BEALE:                          UKIP are not just 
fighting for the votes of disillusioned Tories. They're also targeting 
the support of those who may have backed  pro European parties. The South 
West has become a stronghold for the Liberal Democrats. But UKIP are convinced 
that many who voted Liberal Democrat do not share the party leaderships 
pro European views. 

MAHON:                          There are one or two 
seats in the South West that are very vulnerable to UKIP er the UKIP party. 
I think the other parties, the Liberal Democrats in particular, are very 
worried about us.

BEALE:                    The political ambitions 
of one Liberal Democrat have already been swept  away on a tide of anti-European 
feeling. Until last year this lone figure was the Euro MP for  Cornwall. 
  

TEVERSON:                     In our membership there 
is a concern about our European credentials.  People were voting primarily 
around European issues for once in the European Election.  The Lib Dem 
message was not one that particularly people wanted to hear down here. 
They like the UKIP message and I guess that didn't do my electoral chances 
a lot of good.   People at the General Election will not primarily vote 
on the European issue and even if they did I think very few people would 
actually want to move to a complete withdrawal of the European Union. What 
they're trying to say is,  we don't like Europe as it is at the moment, 
I'll make a protest vote.
 
ADRIAN LEE:                There's some evidence to suggest 
that Liberal Democrats may well be trimming their pro Europe sails to some 
extent - you know, in the sense that they're taking the line in the South 
West region in particular, that the problems with fishing and farming for 
example can be resolved by the constant application of pressure, the constant 
speaking up for farmers, the constant speaking up for fishermen, and by 
the revision of European policies.

BEALE:                    But UKIP aren't doing themselves 
any favours. After bitter in-fighting they appear to have lost their way 
- or just lost interest.  They're  searching for a new leader.  Nine hopeful 
candidates have  been addressing  some of the party's eight-thousand members. 
They know that whoever is the victor will have an enormous task.   Michael 
Holmes was  the UKIP  leader and one of its three MEP'S.  He's now turned 
his back on the party but not the Strasbourg Parliament. He's not optimistic 
about UKIP's long term chances of survival.
 
MICHAEL HOLMES:            I think it hinges on who becomes 
leader in three weeks time. Whoever wins is going to have problems with 
another part of the party, like I had when I won two years ago. I think 
it's, I give it no better than fifty-fifty that it would grow to reach 
the potential.


BEALE:                     It's been a time for soul 
searching:   

UNAMED MAN:                We have conspired to rip ourselves 
apart by indulging in internal warfare. 

UNAMED MAN:                I joined this party to fight 
the European Union and not fellow Euro- sceptics.

UNAMED MAN:                We are not a pressure group; 
we are a political party and our business is getting votes.  

BEALE:                    There are fundamental problems 
for whoever takes over the leadership. At present UKIP are divided on whether 
to field candidates in all parliamentary seats and whether to offer more 
policies than withdrawal from Europe. It could make the difference on how 
they're viewed - as a serious party or a single issue campaign.

BOOTH:                    We have got a raft of policies 
- in the European elections....

BEALE:                    ...What are they? What policies?

BOOTH:                    Well, we've got policies 
on every aspect of Government.

BEALE:                    Like? 

BOOTH:                    Well on Health, Education 
and Defence.

BEALE:                    What are they?

BOOTH:                    Oh, no, in, in two minutes 
I can't go through that and in fact we're working on them again now.

BEALE:                    At least UKIP is still afloat 
as a party and preparing to fight over 400 seats in the general election. 
 Most members realise they're unlikely to win seats as they did in the 
European elections.  But they hope they can force the bigger political 
parties to alter their course on the issue of Europe. 

LEE:                        If UKIP was a serious 
party that was here to stay, we'd be seeing a great deal more activity 
from it now at this point in time. We'd be seeing it putting up candidates 
in local elections. That would indicate that it had a local organisation 
and local support. It's had major problems nationally, it's had a leadership 
resignation, the executive has been split, they've had all sorts of difficulties. 
It is short on organisation, it is short on finance and it is perceived 
by the electorate, largely, as a single issue party. 
     
HOLMES:                    UKIP has to be realistic, 
it's never going to be a government, its main job in the next five years 
is to try and turn one of the main political parties and obviously particularly 
the Tories into a position of rejecting membership of EMU for all time 
on constitutional grounds and therefore admitting that we may well have 
to leave the European Union politically.
  
BEALE:                    UKIP has set a course for 
complete withdrawal from the European Union - and so far no other party 
is willing to follow. But political  opponents are nervously watching the 
horizon.  UKIP may still take away valuable votes.