I visited the UK's 'wokest' university and 1 thing left me shocked

When people once heard the words Cambridge University, they might have thought of the brightest, most intellectually gifted students in the world. Now, I'd describe them as some of the wokest, and, quite frankly, the most undeservedly self-important.

I visited the historic institution on Monday, eager to chat with its young academics and hear their thoughts on a few topical issues. The cobbled streets were filled with bright-eyed students, all sporting matching university-branded puffa jackets and carrying rucksacks brimming with books. I expected the day to unfold like any other when I'm out speaking to locals for a story - full of engaging, lively conversations.

How wrong I was. In my entire reporting career (granted, not as long as some of my colleagues who've been in the game for decades), I've never walked away without a single response from anyone. I certainly didn't expect a group of 19-year-old bookworms to hold such strong feelings about the Daily Express. But alas, they did.

Normally, when I approach people in the street, about one in four are happy to stop and chat, even if just briefly. At Cambridge, however, I was met with abrupt dismissals such as, "no, I don't like the Express", before they strode off, exuding an air of superiority.

One student even told me: "I don't even know who the Prime Minister is, sorry." That's either deeply concerning for someone studying at such a prestigious institution or an attempt at sarcastic humour.

Considering Cambridge boasts one of the oldest debating societies in the world, I expected at least one of the hundreds of students I approached to be willing to talk.

It's worth noting that Cambridge was recently ranked as the UK's "wokest university" by the think tank Civitas. The title followed the introduction of programmes such as unconscious bias and race-awareness workshops for freshers. The university also reportedly tried to attach "trigger warnings" to anti-abortion student stalls and mandated pronoun signatures in emails.

On a broader scale, biologically male transgender athletes have joined women's sports teams, and women-only colleges have begun accepting biological men who identify as trans women.

So perhaps I shouldn't be surprised that students at an institution with these credentials weren't exactly eager to speak with a reporter from a perceived Right-leaning paper.

In the seven hours I spent attempting to engage with students, only one person was willing to talk: Maeve Halligan, president of the new Society of Women - a group that, unsurprisingly, has faced a barrage of online abuse for being labelled "transphobic".

Within hours of its launch, the society received hundreds of vile comments, telling the founders to "choke on your hatred" and calling them "a disappointment to women".

Well, for what it's worth, which probably isn't much to the Cambridge activists, I believe the opposite is true.

The Society of Women is, to me, the only glimmer of hope shining from an otherwise thoroughly woke institution.