Nowadays no-platform policies have given up focusing only on the far right.

Her comments came after a spate of student bodies decided to "no-platform" speakers.

When asked on his position as to the principle of no-platform policy, he said, " These people have no place in civilised society.

Leeds University Union caters to more than 300 student societies and its no-platform strategy has been in operation for three years.

By backing the policy, he committed the Lib Dems to supporting a "no-platform" policy, despite party conference policy explicitly rejecting it.

As the NUS's Brooks says: "Sometimes the only way you can ensure safe spaces remain safe is through no-platform policies."

Aaronovitch who started out as a firm supporter of the no-platform policy when he was a student in the 1970s, now believes that it is counterproductive, especially as an egalitarian tool.

When no-platform policies were first instituted by the NUS back in 1974, they were aimed specifically at the far right in the shape of the National Front, and their sympathisers.

In 2004, MPACUK was the subject of a no-platform order by the National Union of Students, because of its publication of anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist conspiracy theories, provocative racist material, and further material on its website encouraging activists to break the law.

A survey published last week by Spiked, the online political magazine with a libertarian agenda, found curbs on freedom of expression were in place in 90% of British universities - up from 80% the previous year - and that almost two-fifths of student unions had "no-platform" policies, reserving the right to ban any speakers deemed offensive to students.

In an email to the Independent, however, NUS president Megan Dunn said HOPE not hate was not on the NUS 'no-platform list'.

The Independent Voices I was like them once, too, a ferocious no-platform pugilist.

Calling on the NUS to revise its no-platform policies, the supporters of free speech have said in the letter: "Educational institutions must be a place for the exchange and criticism of all ideas - even those deemed unpalatable by some - providing they don't incite violence against peoples or communities. "

We, therefore, call on the NUS to revise its no-platform and safe space policies to facilitate freedom of expression and thought, rather than restrict it.

The group of campaigners are urging other supporters to either email the NUS to ask the student campaigner to amend its policies, or to tweet: "I call on @nusuk to revise safe space and no-platform policies to facilitate, not restrict, free expression and thought."

He posted a public Facebook post claiming that some students were trying to "no-platform" him.

Predictably, there is now a petition - 883 signatures and counting - howling about reinstating free speech at the university, as if the liberty to boot-polish one's face for a lashtastic night out at Edinburgh's student institution Mansion is on a par with the right to no-platform Germaine Greer.

Universities ban things under the name of safe-space policies or no-platform policies but it's counter-productive.