Edward Noble - UKIP (From Stroud News and Journal)

Edward Noble - UKIP

THIS year will be Edward Noble's first time in the political arena.

"I was totally non political until recently," he admits. "It is only the last couple of years that I have become more and more affected by the red tape and bureaucracy."

His route into politics was unconventional. For the last 35 years, he has worked as a management accountant for a wine importing company based in Plymouth. In the course of his business transactions with Europe, he has come to the conclusion that the red tape outweighs the advantages of a single currency.

"We want to be totally independent from the bureaucracy. We don't want to be totally separate from Europe. We do a lot of business with Europe. Depending on what you read, 50 percent of our business is in Europe. But we need to have control of our destiny."

Despite his lack of experience, he remains optimistic about becoming Stroud's first UKIP MP.

"I think my chances are fairly good," he said. "There is a lot of dissatisfaction with the present parties."

Although his rhetoric extends little beyond Europe, Edward insists that UKIP is more than just a political pressure group.

"Until the last election you could have said we were very much a pressure group but over the last 12 to 18 months we have really started to work as a political party. It is the first time we have had sufficient MPs in parliament to think about forming a government. "We are a political party. We have a full range of policies and a manifesto being launched which will cover the complete role of government.

"We are very keen to support education as it is at the moment but we want to decentralise. We want to encourage everyone to participate and have local accountability."

Nevertheless, he would concentrate his efforts on gaining independence from Europe if elected. "I would be very much in Parliament arguing and joining all the debates about Europe and undertaking all the activities necessary to get us out of Europe.

"My main concern is the legislation that is coming out of Brussels. I don't feel it is receiving enough scrutiny. Therefore I would join all the scrutiny committees." He does not deny that voters may see the party as xenophobic.

"I am a xenophobe if you mean that I am really proud of my country. I really want my country to take a part on the world stage.

"We are very much an anti-racist party, anti-discrimination in every respect." He believes that patriotism has negative connotations in England, which are not an issue in other countries.

"In Scotland or Wales they are very strong on national identity but no-one describes them as racist. I am English and I am proud of being English."

He dismisses the idea that European legislation has sometimes been in the UK's favour, such as the European court ruling which forced British beef to be accepted when other countries were reluctant to buy it after the BSE crisis.

"If we had opted out we wouldn't have been in that position in the first place. We would have been able to run our own affairs. It is almost like being mugged and the mugger coming along and them giving us our bus fare home and saying, 'How kind we are. If it wasn't for us you wouldn't have been able to get the bus home'."

Mr Noble says he is passionate about Britain.

"I have a strong active Christian faith which gives me an interest and a compassion for everyone regardless of their colour or creed. But at the same time I am very proud of my background and culture and ask the same rights and respect that I want to give other people.

"I know a lot of small businesses are really affected by the amount of red tape they are having to comply with. Now is the time for people to stand up and be counted and say we have had enough."

Edward has lived in Stroud for the last six years. He has three grown-up children.

He is actively involved in the Salvation Army and in his spare time he enjoys sailing.