THE WILBERFORCE SOCIETY

The oldest student think tank in the UK, based at the University of Cambridge

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ABOUT US

The Wilberforce Society was founded in 2009 as an independent student think-tank with the mission of promoting constructive and intelligent debate in Cambridge.

TWS prides itself on producing rigorously researched, non-partisan policy papers on pertinent issues, which have included ‘The Brexit Report’, a comprehensive analysis of the impact of Brexit on Cambridge, which was presented at the European Parliament.

TWS also holds regular events with leading academics and experts on policy issues and current affairs. The highlight of our speaker events is The Wilberforce Society’s Annual Conference, held in Lent Term.

About us

HISTORY

It is from William Wilberforce, MP and abolitionist, that we take our name. While a student at St John’s College, Cambridge from 1776 to 1781, he became close friend to future Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger. With other great men including William Grenville, they formed a circle of friends that proved to be a powerful force in British politics between the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Though he never became Prime Minister, as the two aforementioned men did, Wilberforce established a formidable reputation in his early parliamentary career as a great independent member and a leading orator of his day. The first of these qualities is our foremost reason for adopting his name. But we take it also to honour his extraordinary achievement in leading the work towards the abolition of Britain’s slave trade, the first of any major slave-trading nation to make such a reform.

While we are not constrained by the often very conservative positions that Wilberforce was to adopt in his later career, we strive to devise proposals that encompass compassion and understanding akin to that which he espoused.

History

PROJECTS

Research

Navigating Crossroads: EU Engagement with the Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict

Full Paper

From Coercion to Choice: The Case for Liberal Natalist Policies

Full Paper

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Digital Journal

Gen Z Protests and Policy Failure: Lessons from Kenya’s Finance Bill 2024

Written by Shamim Ibrahim Edited by Evan Burgess ‘I concede.’ With these defeated words, Kenya’s President William Ruto yielded to public dissent and withdrew a contentious finance bill after a month of intense, youth-driven protests against it. Aimed at reducing the nation’s soaring debt through higher taxes, the Finance Bill 2024 became a flashpoint, igniting widespread activism domestically and among Kenyans in France, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Despite the

Modern Monetary Theory in the UK

Written by Paolo Parisi-Bush Edited by Mehmet Yusuf Temur and Abigail Ng Over the last decade, many Western economies have experienced a steady increase in the ratio of national debt as a proportion of total output [1] . Whilst slowing per-capita GDP growth may reflect a longer-term trend [2] , governments have increasingly utilised deficit spending to address a series of global shocks following the Covid-19 pandemic. In the United Kingdom, chronically low productivity growth

Jimmy Lai’s Sentencing and Hong Kong’s Judicial Pivot

The twenty-year custodial sentence given to Jimmy Lai Chee-ying by the Hong Kong High Court on 9th of February 2026 - occurring just a week from Sir Kier’s visit to Beijing - represents a shift in Hong Kong’s judicial development. Mr Lai was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and one count of conspiring to publish seditious material. The 78-year-old, who arrived in Hong Kong at the age of 12 after stowing away in the bottom of a fishing boat,

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