Molly Scott Cato, the South West’s new Green Party MEP, has already hopped on a Eurostar train and arrived in Brussels as a show of determination to promote the Green cause in the new European Parliament.
And as it grapples with the UKIP surge in the UK and extreme right and left minor parties elected across the continent, she told Marlborough News Online: “So, we made it! I am so excited, thrilled and proud and looking forward to representing green values and all the people of the South West.”
She was overwhelmed by the scale of her victory as one of the six MEPs elected in the region, adding: “In an election where most regional parties went backwards by as much as two per cent, our vote share increased by that same amount.”
The 51-year-old economics expert from Stroud, in Gloucestershire, presented her case in High Street, Marlborough, in the run-up to last Thursday’s election, which saw UKIP triumphant with an historic victory in which it defeated all the main political parties.
“I think we had a good strategy, a wonderful campaign team, and that sticking to our positive message and refusing to be drawn into the UKIP narrative really helped us,” she explained.
“But we all know how elections are won — a vast amount of volunteer effort by committed activists and to all of you who tramped the pavements delivering newspapers, stood in windy streets nattering with disgruntled voters, or organised a meeting or tour for the candidates I say a heartfelt Thank You.
“The margin of victory demonstrates that we needed every last minute that you put into the campaign so without you we really could not have done it.”
Marlborough’s Green activist Dr Sam Page told Marlborough News Online: “Molly’s win is really important for promoting the green agenda in Europe, considering that the French Greens lost nine of their MEPs in the EU elections.
“I hope that Molly will work with the other 46 Green MEPs in Brussels to address crucial environmental issues that are affecting us here in Wiltshire, such as the high levels of toxic emissions from buses and trucks in our towns and the greenhouse gases that are being emitted due to unsustainable farming practices.
“I hope that they will also make it easier for local communities to generate their own energy, as they do in Germany. The European Greens should also lead the way in trying to get agreement on reducing global GHG emissions at the UN Conference on Climate Change, which will be held in Peru this December.”
| South West women truimph with four MEPs out of six elected |
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Women have come out tops in the EU election in the South West – four of the six successful MEPs being female. This is believed to be an unprecedented event in any EU constituency across the whole of Europe. The female four in the South West are Julie Girling (Tory), Clare Moody (Labour), Molly Scott Cato (Green) and Julia Reed (UKIP). Their election is believed to be the highest concentration of women in any region of the whole EU. And yet that compares to only eight female MPs in the whole of the South West. “The conclusion we should draw is that we need to change our politics so that it is more representative to the people we are representing and that we need to change Westminster politics so that it is more inviting to women politicians,” says Molly Scott Cato. Julie Girling, 57, is a former leader o Cotswold District Council, married with one son and living in Chipping Camden, Gloucestershire. She has also served on Gloucestershire County Council for nine years and became an MEP at the 2009 EU elections. Clare Moody, 48, us a trade union official for Unite, who lives in Salisbury, Wiltshire. She unsuccessfully fought the Euro elections in 2004 and was the unsuccessful Labour candidate for Salisbury at the 2005 General Election. Molly Scott Cato, 51, is a mother of three who lives in Stroud, Gloucestershire. She is a professor of strategy and sustainability at Roehampton University, in London, and has published widely on green economics, localism and anti-capitalism. She is currently a member of Stroud District Council. Dr Julia Reid, 61, is a biochemist by profession, who is married with a son and two grandsons, living in Calne, Wiltshire, for nearly 40 years. She campaigned for a NO vote in the 1975 referendum on Europe and was a member of the SDP before switching to UKIP. |
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