Details Here

Could I ask that you write again to your MP asking them to support this EDM. If you wrote before and got an answer in the negative, then in light of the FSF Report there are plenty of arguments to counter offer.

And remember - the EDM is asking for a debate. You could persuade your MP that a discussion is the least they should support given that we still live in a demoracy.

Sweet, will get right on with sending an email to my MP tonight or tomorrow. Will also publicise this on various forums.

Sorry for sounding thick, but how do I find out who my MP is again :unsure:

Mines a legend, he's already signed it! :D

:) <----Click Me!

MP contacted. fingers crossed

Whats happened to the old one?

In the middle of typing up my letter, will paste it in once ive finished before i send it so any mistakes or things i could add can be added to it

my pasted letter. anyone see anything that I have missed or can word better?

cheers

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I am 20 years old and a Manchester United season ticket holder. I am writing to you about safe standing at football grounds. There is a new Early Day Motion asking for a proper debate on the subject. I am writing you to ask in hope that you will support it. Given that we live in a democratic society, and you are my Member of Parliament, I feel you should be in a position to at least support the discussion of the subject even if you do not agree with the principles of the discussion.

The game that I fell in love was largely down to the atmosphere generated. It has come to mine and many others attentions that the atmosphere generated at matches has slumped significantly and most grounds now resemble libraries. For the record, my seat is right next to a metal wall at the very end of the upper tier of the Stretford End. It is due to this that I find myself in a position where I am able to stand and not block the people behind's view. Every match that goes by, 4,000-5,000 people in the upper tier stand for the entire match, as well as large numbers in the old Scoreboard End of the ground on the lower tier. In theory, the steepness of the tier makes it less safe to stand in the upper tier rather than the lower tier, where the gradient is far less substantial.

In and among the 4,000-5,000 there will be a number of people among them that are not able to stand for the duration of the match and they are finding themselves forced to stand, otherwise they will find themselves in a position where they are unable to see the match. This often results in conflict within the stadium between the supporters and then the stewards also. United's game against Blackburn Rovers on Sunday saw even more of the stadium stood than is usual. There is increasing conflict between supporters and stewards and as such, the current situation is simply not working. The stewards feel that they need to put a marker down to show people that they will not tolerate people “persistently standing” and match by match, all that results from it is more tension between stewards, supporters who wish to stand and supporters who wish to sit.

There is a group of people campaigning for a common sense solution to the issue. The group is called Stand Up Sit Down. They are calling for sections of stadia to be set aside to allow people to stand in these areas in they wish to do so. Doing this would allow people that want to stand to do so without feeling guilty at blocking other people's views and it also will mean that there will be less conflict between supporters and stewards. All that they are asking for is proper management of what is happening now, where people are standing in full knowledge that they are breaking the ground regulations.

There has been recent publicity for the issue of standing at football matches on Sky Sports News with many people speaking in favour of a choice or whether to stand or sit. Many of the tabloids and media have misunderstood our request and think that we wish to return to the days of entire grounds standing. They have cited the number of women and children as examples of football being made available to a wider audience as a result of all-seater. This is however, not true. Children went to games all through the 60s,70s and the 80s, women also have been going to games for many years, admittedly, the number of female supporters at games has rose significantly but I again make my point that we don’t wish to have entire grounds standing again. We are campaigning for limited capacity standing areas that will be properly managed. This will result in those supporters who wish to stand, being able to do so without aggravating the people behind them and also without the stewards needing to step in to stop people from standing. The other result of this would mean that the supporters who wish to sit would also be able to do so without the aggravation of having people standing in front of them, blocking their view of the game. Football is supposed to be a game that can be enjoyed by all, but the current situation is that they people who wish to sit are getting 100% of the deal and the people who wish to stand getting 0% of the deal. In a nationwide Football Fans Census survey of over 2,000 supporters, 92% said that they believed supporters should have a choice. This was the view even of many who prefer to sit.

The advances in technology such as CCTV since that awful day in 1989 at Hillsborough now means that it is now possible for safe standing areas to be implemented across the country without the fear of any repercussions such as those on that day. There would be a capacity allowed within the safe standing area and once that is full, no-one else would be allowed into the safe standing area. If it is the case that there is justification for the club to extend the safe standing area because of the demand then the club would be in a position to accommodate for the demand.

Examples of safe standing can be seen in Germany across a wide variety in designs of stadia. Much the same as England during the 70s and 80s, Germany had a problem with violence at football. This is not evident at games in Germany. When asked about a grounds accident record, safety officer Volker Fuerderer said "In the nearly six years of the VELTINS-Arena, there has not been a single incident or injury that was caused by having standing terraces." Surely that puts to bed the argument by the FLA (Football Licensing Authority) that standing can not be reintroduced as it is not as safe as seating.

I thank you for reading and look forward to your response.

My guy: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/jonathan_...m_and_aylesford

Complete towing-the-line authoritarian Party drone, is there any way you can get around only being able to write to your own MP?

Aslymark - well done lad good letter . ;)

MP for Wycombe signed it again. :D
Write to MPs in cities/ towns wih clubs that have standing and ask whether these supporters should be denied the right in future ie Cardiff, Colchester and Ssalmonhorpe.

wrote to john leech - he signed the last one so hopefully will do so again.

Wrote to my MP this morning, he signed the last one so should be no bother.

Excellent letter from the young Mancunian.

just received this reply from my mp (shame about him being a bitter):

Dear Alan

I signed the EDM in the last session and I have signed it this time too,
although my name will not yet appear on the list. There was also a
debate on the issue in Parliament recently and I got the opportunity to
make a contribution, albeit brief, because I was due at another meeting.
I have always been a supporter of safe standing at football grounds, and
would choose to stand to watch Man City if I still had the choice (at
Maine Road my season ticket was in the Kippax)

Kind regards

John Leech

Sent to my mp.

Just typed in my new postcode and found out that Sir Mike Hancock is my MP, aint he the one who started the original EDM?

I believe so!

Good news for you then! :D

Letter seem to put your point across well and gives good personal experience as well as citing national coverage.

Have just highlighted in bold a couple of spelling mistakes and in red a couple of bits you don't need incase you haven't sent it yet.

I have also re-worded an entire paragraph.

Please don't take this as negative - just trying to help.

Do you mind if I copy a lot of this straight into a letter to my MP?

Yeah ok mate, i've already sent it a few days back. Sent it to your mp if you want

There are already a few MPs who have signed the latest EDM but didn't sign last year's (four by my reckoning)

Interestingly, given the bother that Sunderland FC seem to be causing, one of these MPs is Labour's Chris Mullin, MP for Sunderland South...

I'm not sure that the Stadium of Light falls within his constituency, but as a Sunderland MP it might be worth letting him know what's happening at the SOL if he doesn't already, if there's any Sunderland fans in his constituency on here?

I know that a good number of people on here have already written to their MP to see if they will sign the latest EDM, which is great.

There were 150 MPs last year who signed EDM 101 (as it was numbered in that parliamentary session) and the FSF are making a real effort to increase that number this year.

In short, if the number increases it shows that support for the campaign is growing and keeps the politicians on their toes. If it decreases, while it's not the end of the world, it'll be disappointing and some opponents might point out that support is dwindling.

There are 646 MPS. So, although some are unlikely to sign (e.g. if they're Ministers) there's plenty more to go at!

If we can ask friends/relatives/contacts who live in other constituencies if they wouldn't mind us using their name and address to write to their MP (they don't need to draft anything themselves as we'll have our own letters they can use already) we can make sure that more MPs are aware of the issue and urge them to sign. In an ideal world we'd get responses from 646 MPs but surely it's worth a shot and should increase significantly responses from those who haven't signed yet.

Any thoughts?

I think the ultimate goal is to obtain enough signatures so that we can achieve a Parliamentary debate on the matter and having done politics for an A Level, to my knowledge rarely get debated due to the lack of Parliamentary time.

I have to say, studying the history of EDM's we would need to be looking at 250 + to within a reasonable chance of getting a debate on the issue.

Like with the last EDM, we can certainly use this to help generate additional publicity for the campaign.

I honestly think we can achieve 200 EDM signatures... we certainly should push for success on the EDM as much as we can.

I'll be writing to my MP Julian Brazier shortly

Thanks all for doing what you're doing, and Cityman for your idea of using family addresses to reach MPs.

The recent debate in the House of Commons could have been as a partial or direct result of the last EDM.

We want these debates, we need our MPs to put pressure on the Sports Minister and with your efforts we're more likely to get them.

YESTERDAY WE HAD 27 SIGNATURES, TODAY 33!

5 days later and his name still doesn't appear on the list...

Might be an idea to contact your MP even if they've already signed it just to say thanks - I did that with mine and he's promised to have a word with Gerry Sutcliffe.

Just as a reminder

Contact your MP here

EDM and who's signed it here

Does your MP HAVE to reply to you? I sent mine 8 days ago and still nothing

They usually go for 10 working days turn round time but be aware that they will only reply to addresses within their constituencies and that quite often they reply by post, which adds a few more days.

My tactic is to give them 10 working days then send the message marked as a resend.

It took me six months to get an answer to my question about the Glazers getting tax relief on the loans they took out to buy United and even then the answer was that they aren't saying so be prepared to keep banging on their doors.

Another strategy is to make an appointment to see your MP during one of their surgery sessions.

One of the FSF national council members did this and managed to change their MP's mind about not signing the EDM

Maybe a next strategy...?

Nice one John. I'm liking this guy, having read through his website he almost agree's with every policy I do, and he has signed this twice with no problems at all. ;)

MP for Colchester-Bob Russell has signed it already-no surprise as he stands on the terraces at layer road!

he's now there - apologies john (you blue git) for my doubting impatience :D

44 signatures now. Roughly a third of the number we got last time...

Keep writing those letters people!

45 today!

Where's all the usual suspects? Mancred, Yorkie, BHB, the Chelsea lads etc etc...? Get writing! ;)

Has now reached the half-century

55 MP's now, good steady progress.

Wouldn't it be an idea to sticky this?

58 now, including several that didn't sign the last EDM.

Thanks again to those who've written to the MPs!

Finally got a reply to my email

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Thank you for your email of 14 November 2007 regarding safe standing sections at stadiums during football matches and the subsequent Early Day Motion, which I read with interest.

I am afraid that as a Parliamentary Private Secretary there are some EDMs that I am unable to sign and unfortunately Early Day Motion 71; Standing Areas at Football Grounds, is one of the these.

The Government has listened to both sides of the argument on this issue and has decided that the current arrangements at stadiums in this country are satisfactory. While fan enjoyment is a key issue here, safety must be the top priority on this issue. I also understand that many fans surveyed said that their safety was most important to them and that they were happy with the current stadium design.

Thank you again for contacting me and please do not hesitate to contact me again if I can be of any further help on this or any other issue.

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Is there anything that I can do, says that she cant sign it but is there anything that she can do to help us?

So, yet again we have the suggestion that it isn't safe to stand! What rubbish. And when have we been asked about "current stadium design"?

So, still MPs remain clueless and ignorant to the fact that you can stand safely.

58 signatures now.

Have you already written?

If you have, great and have you asked your friends and family with different MPs to sign as well?