For those that prefer to stand to watch Arsenal, there’s a backbench parliamentary motion doing the rounds in the House of Commons calling for an examination of the case for allowing safe standing areas at top football grounds in England & Wales (currently banned by law).

Click here to see the motion and which MPs have supported it so far. It’s been signed by 84 MPs of all political parties already, including Islington South MP Emily Thornberry. The more MPs who sign it the more likely it is that the debate many supporters want will happen.

I invite all Gooner readers and onlinegooner website visitors to write or email their MP to ask them to support this initiative if they haven’t already. To find contact details for their MP all readers need to do is go to www.writetothem.com and type in their home postcode. Letters and emails to MPs really do work.

I spent 20 seasons standing on the old North Bank before deciding I was too fat and lazy to stand anymore and getting a seat. That choice isn’t available to Gooners any longer. I think it should be. Just look at Germany and wonderful new grounds like the Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen (where we played a few seasons ago). It costs €9 (just over £6) to stand at Bundesliga matches there this season.

It’s one of the few things missing at Ashburton Grove I think. Safety has nothing to do with standing or sitting. It wasn’t the terraces that killed fans at Hillsborough. It was the fences. It would also cut out all the problems with people standing up at the Grove in front of people who want to remain seated. Why is it safe to stand at both codes of rugby, rock concerts, horse racing and even the bottom two divisions in football but not in the top two divisions?

This is a debate whose time has come. I appeal to my fellow Gooners to make sure that it happens. Write to your MP TODAY.