On Thursday evening at Newnham College, MEP Molly Scott Cato addressed a thirty-strong audience in one of a series of talks on Green Party policy ahead of the General Election.

The MEP for Southwest England travelled to the college in order to talk on the “Myth of Austerity”, and why a new approach to economic policy in the Eurozone and the UK is needed.

The hour-and-a-half-long event, hosted by the Cambridge Young Greens, is one of a number of political events taking place this term in light of the general election at the beginning of May.

Scott Cato, an MEP since 2014, questioned whether the UK needs continuous economic growth, and whether the country would benefit instead from maintaining GDP. Quoting the Easterlin Paradox, the MEP suggested that once GDP per capita exceeds a given amount, individuals’ wellbeing does not rise with it.

Other topics discussed were that of changes needed across Europe to tackle tax avoidance by large corporations, and the issue of structural reform in the European Union.

The forty-five minute speech was followed by a question and answer session, open to members of the Green Party in attendance, as well as members of the public. Topics included the Green’s policy of public ownership of the railway network along with the ‘Green Transition’, which involves the transformation of the renewable energy sector.

The meeting was also attended by the Green Party’s prospective parliamentary candidate Rupert Read, a philosophy lecturer at the University of East Anglia and the Chair of the Green House Think Tank, along with candidates for the local wards.

The Green Party polled 4th in the 2010 Cambridge parliamentary election, achieving 7.6 per cent of the vote. The seat was, however, “the Green Party’s third highest general election vote in 2010” according to a Young Green’s flyer.

Mr Read had previously stood for election to the European Parliament in 2014 but was unsuccessful, and was recently forced to apologise "unreservedly for any offence caused" after he was accused of transphobia over comments he made on Twitter.