David Cameron once branded them "fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists".
Now UKIP face being something much worse - irrelevant.
Where next for Nigel Farage's flailing anti-EU party just three years after it won 4million votes - helping push the Leave campaign to victory?
Mirror reporters Dan Bloom and Mikey Smith took a party legend to London's Fruit Cake Patisserie to find out.
Gawain Towler spent 14 years as UKIP's tweed-clad press chief after cleaning toilets in a Knightsbridge club, working on the cheat phone line for video game Worms and "modelling" for Italian Vogue in Paris.
As UKIP's official spokesman, he often found himself defending the indefensible - all in the polite chirpy manner of a Victorian gent.
So we chatted about the party's scandals, its plummeting popularity - and where it goes next.
The Climate Crisis Panel - Part 2
The Climate Crisis Panel - Part 1
Mirror Next Gen: Teenagers take control of the Daily Mirror
A review of the year when politics lost leave of it senses
Budget treat or trickery?
Careers, confidences and conferences
Corbyn builds a powerful case for change
Vince Cable's long goodbye
Big Issue founder Lord Bird on Corbyn, "failure" politicians and the homelessness crisis
Where the hell are we with Brexit now?
How to save the high street
The collapse of the centre left
Inequality is bad for your mental health
A model citizen
The march of the robots
Talk of the towns: the key battleground of the next election
Are workers getting a fair deal?
The new working class
14: Theresa May pays the price for the Windrush fiasco
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