TERRACES could return to Premiership football grounds, if you believe some newspaper reports – but I don’t think the stories stand up to scrutiny.

Hopes – or fears, depending on your view – were sparked by a meeting between the Sports Minister Hugh Robertson, the football authorities, the police and the Football Supporters’ Federation.

It undoubtedly shifted the public statements of Mr Robertson who, for the first time, agreed to consider the evidence from abroad that it is possible for fans to stand safely.

Interestingly, the police – perhaps the staunchest opponents of bringing back terraces – accepted the issue was no longer one of safety, two decades after the Hillsborough tragedy.

They have examined developments in Germany, the best-attended and most profitable league in the world, apparently, where most clubs incorporate standing areas.

These are not old-style terraces. Instead, they have closely-spaced rails, allowing just one or two rows of supporters in-between – making a crush almost impossible, it is argued.

Flip-down seats are brought into use for Champions League matches.

At the meeting, it was also pointed out that almost the whole of the Kop stood anyway at Liverpool’s recent clash with Manchester United – which clearly raises questions of safety.

Meanwhile, German fans who choose to stand pay only £10 to £12, a mere quarter of prices for seats at top Premier League clubs.

Read it and weep.

That gulf in cost is a crucial point. Germany decided, 20 years ago, not to switch to all-seater stadia because poorer fans – the bedrock of the “people’s game” – would be priced out.

So, if the police believe standing can be safe, the Government is willing to examine the evidence and it would help bring cashstrapped younger fans and families back to the sport, why won’t it happen?

Well, in part it is because the police have now shifted the argument away from safety to the issues of crowd control, easier stewarding and the better “atmosphere” at games.

Crucially, none of the footballing authorities wants to bring back standing and the clubs are hardly likely to welcome it – because they would be forced to slash their outrageous prices.

But the main reason is the dark shadow still cast by the appalling tragedy at Hillsborough, when 96 Liverpool fans senselessly lost their lives.

As a student in Sheffield in 1989, I stood regularly on the Leppings Lane End. I know the causes were a decrepit ground and blundering police – not standing up.

THE smoke from the bonfires in Piccadilly Circus has obscured the real scandal emerging from last Saturday’s anti-cuts demonstrations.

That scandal is the mass arrest of 145 UK Uncut activists, who staged a peaceful occupation of luxury food store Fortnum and Mason in protest at £10m annual tax avoidance by its parent company.

Police officers were captured on film promising to release the protestors. They were then kettled, handcuffed and charged with aggravated trespass.

It is hard to imagine a more blatant attempt to stamp out peaceful protest. Colonel Gaddafi would be proud.