Economics Conference 2022 - An informative day for Sixth Form students

Last week saw the annual Economics Conference return to Shrewsbury. Boris P (SH, UVI) reflects on the day.

On Tuesday 8^th November, the Shrewsbury School Economics Society was proud to stage its annual Economics conference. The theme of the conference was “Are markets are doomed to fail?”. Hosting 160 young economists from four schools including Oswestry School, Shrewsbury 6^th Form College, and Moreton Hall, the auditorium was filled with a buzz of excitement and anticipation.

We were extremely glad to welcome Julia Buckley (Labour Concillor for Bridgenorth) and Dr. Andrew Lillico (Daily Telegraph Economics Columnist) as keynote speakers. They kicked the conference off with passionate speeches arguing diametrically opposed perspectives.

This was then followed by a student team debate on the motion “This house believes free markets are doomed to fail”. The teams comprised students from Shrewsbury School, Shrewsbury 6^th Form College, and Oswestry School. Our debaters on the teams were Lingyu X (MSH) and Myra L (MSH). The audience, who were gripped by the debaters’ arguments and enthusiastic with their questions for the debaters, had the final say, voting for the winning team.

In the afternoon, we were joined by three more visiting speakers who joined Julia and Andrew to form a panel from all across the political spectrum to answer and debate questions posed by students. We welcomed Simon Richards (political commentator), Huw Peach (Environmental Campaigner) and Richard Hudson (former Housemaster of Churchill’s). This Question Time event was ably chaired by Ollie F (PH) as he managed healthy discussion and debate on the topics ranging from COP27 to Kwasi Kwarteng’s unpopular budget.

The day was then concluded with informative talks from two Oswestry School students who shared their experiences of a summer internship with the Institute of Economic Affairs and a summer school at the John Locke Institute. All in all, this day proved to be both extremely informative and enjoyable for all attending.