Free expression belongs to everyone, not only the person on the stage. Within the law, you are free to say exactly what you think of a speaker and their views, though not in ways that disrupt the event and the rights of others in the audience to listen and engage.
The protections that let a society host a speaker also protect your right to challenge them in many ways:
Protest the event, peacefully and lawfully (see Protesting safely here).
Go along and ask questions A hard question in front of an audience can persuade more than an empty room.
Write about it LSESU's student media, including The Beaver, are editorially independent and free to criticise any event, speaker or LSESU itself (any article must be checked against our libel checker before publication, which can be found here).
Make the case to other students Host your own event - putting your perspective forward, platforming one or multiple sides of a debate. Showing how little support a view really has on campus can do more than any ban.
Students often ask us not to allow someone to speak. We understand why and take those concerns seriously. But we cannot - and will not - ban or deplatform lawful speech. Bans rarely change minds; they often hand the speaker a bigger platform. The most lasting answer is to argue back, persuade others and build support for your own position.
Answering a view shouldn’t fall only on the students it targets. We’ll support anyone who wants to organise a response with rooms, speakers or counter-events – if you want to discuss further please contact su.welfareliberation@lse.ac.uk or @lsesu.welfarelib on Instagram.
Site design by Elliot Parker.