Prime Ministers, Politicians & UFOs in Britain

What does all this stuff about flying saucers amount to?

What can it mean?

What is the truth?


Sir Winston Churchill July 1952 : Personal Minute to his Secretary of State

We are still asking those same questions in the century after Churchill first asked his Secretary of State back in July of 1952.

Although some official information going back to before the First World War exists on the topic of unexplained aerial sightings I have limited this post to after the dawn of the’ flying saucer age’ (1950s+).

The main aim of this was to look for connections with British Prime Ministers, politicians and UFOs. It was intended as a follow up to a thread I created two years ago:

What do the Royal Family really know about Aliens and UFOs?

It’s been incomplete ever since. However, whilst this is still by no means a comprehensive study, I’ve decided it was time to finish with it.

It is still a long post and aims to look into some of the official documentation of the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and, to a lesser extent, media reports. Links to other posts, websites and videos are also provided for those wanting more details on specific cases. So let’s begin...

 

Winston Churchill

26 October 1951 – 6 April 1955


Arguably Britain’s greatest 20th Century Prime Minister. Winston had a lot on his plate to deal with during his post war years as British Prime Minster (PM). UFOs were certainly one of the items on his list. There was even an alleged saucer crash near to Churchill’s home in Westerham dating back to 1946.

In 1952, Operation Mainbrace, a NATO military exercise in Europe, produced a host of UFO reports from the military.

It was these sightings, I was told by an RAF exchange intelligence officer in the Pentagon that caused the RAF to officially recognize the UFO.


Source: Edward J. Ruppelt - The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects

Media sources in the UK and many other nations speculated that Churchill himself had ordered a UFO cover-up after the release of UK MoD Archives in 2010.

Winston Churchill was accused of ordering a cover-up of a Second World War encounter between a UFO and a RAF bomber because he feared public panic and loss of faith in religion, newly released secret files disclose.



The former Prime Minister allegedly banned reporting of the bizarre incident, off the east coast of England, for half a century amid fears disclosures about unidentified flying objects would create public hysteria.

He is said to have made the orders during a secret war meeting with US General Dwight Eisenhower, the then commander of the Allied Forces, at an undisclosed location in America during the latter part of the conflict.


Source : Daily Telegraph

The story had actually come from a number of letters on file from a person claiming to be the grandson of one of Churchill’s bodyguards. A bodyguard with a seemingly keen ear for secret conversations. In the letters it was claimed that a RAF reconnaissance crew had been intercepted by a metallic craft close to the East Coast of England. The object was silent and whilst the crew had been tracking the aircraft, it simply sped off at great speed leaving no trace.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/dt53d0058a.gif[/atsimg]

One of the claims made in the correspondence was:

This event was discussed by Mr. Churchill and General Eisenhower, neither of whom knew what had been observed. There was a general inability for either side to match a plausible account to these observations... another person raised the possibility of an unidentified flying object, at which point Mr. Churchill declared the incident should be immediately classified for at least 50 years and its status reviewed by a future prime minister.

A search through the National Archives produced nothing to substantiate any such cover-up was instigated by Churchill. However there were attempts made to conceal information from the public, politicians and even the Prime Minister himself.

One document is a letter Churchill wrote to the Air Ministry in 1952 in the opening post asking about Flying Saucers. The Flying Saucer Working Party had already made study, unbeknown to Churchill, about 9 months earlier, and a rapid response was provided to Churchill.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/ft50d0dc50.jpg[/atsimg]
Referenced from : Nat Archives DEFE 24/2013

The study referred to was the work of the Directorate of Scientific Intelligence & Joint Intelligence Committee - DSI/JTIC Report No. 7 (National Archive reference DEFE 44/119). Numerous cases were explained as aerial objects, illusions, hoaxes or psychologically disturbed witnesses. The fatal Thomas Mantell case in the USA was blamed on the pilot chasing Venus.
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/ec53cec563.gif[/atsimg]

The Working Party also liaised with the CIA to debunk sightings and make sure more puzzling cases did not reach the media. Sceptics have seen this as no more than a move to avoid a confrontation with the Soviet Bloc during a very paranoid phase of the Cold War. But maybe there was more to it?

The news report also mentioned a Flying Saucer crash:

We have been informed, in conversation with a member of the United States investigating team, that the even more sensational report of the discovery of a crashed flying saucer, full of the remains of very small beings, was ultimately admitted by its author to have been a complete fabrication.

Although many have made a link to Roswell the report almost certainly points to the frequently discredited Frank Scully story of a crashed flying saucer in Aztec, New Mexico in 1948. Neither was directly referenced in the report which concluded:

….we recommend very strongly that no further investigation of reported mystery aerial phenomena be undertaken, unless and until some material evidence becomes available.

It seems there were two factions within government, those who believed flying saucers presented a very real problem and those who thought it was misguided paranoia.

The London Sunday Dispatch of July 16th 1954 quoted Lord Dowding (former head of RAF Fighter Command)

I am convinced that these objects do exist and that they are not manufactured by any nation on earth. I can therefore see no alternative to accepting the theory that they come from an extraterrestrial source.

Earlier the London Reynolds News of June 16th 1954 also reported on the admission that the Air Ministry had investigated UFOs since that iconic year 1947:

In room 801 of what was once the Hotel Metropole, Britain's Air Ministry is investigating Flying Saucers...and that's official...

At airfields all over Britain, fighter planes are kept ready to intercept, and if necessary engage, any unidentified flying object within combat range...(the room's) existence was admitted last night by an Air Ministry spokesman. He disclosed that it had been investigating Flying Saucer reports since 1947. 'We have something like 10,000 on our files.

Anthony Eden

6 April 1955 – 10 January 1957


Anthony Eden’s Premiership is often seen as a disappointing one by historians. Mainly because of his bungling of the Suez crisis. Shortly after taking over at No.10 Downing Street UFOs were in the news again.

Possible UFO Crash in Britain?

Just after Churchill retired in 1955, Britain had its own UFO crash incident reported by the media. Any briefing given to, or involvement, of the new Prime Minister is not on the official record.

US journalist Dorothy Kilgallen alleged that the British Government had recovered a crashed UFO in a piece for the Los Angeles Examiner on 23 May 1955:

British scientists and airmen, after examining the wreckage of one mysterious flying ship, are convinced these strange aerial objects are not optical illusions or Soviet inventions, but are flying saucers which originate on another planet. The source of my information is a British official of cabinet rank who prefers to remain unidentified. ‘We believe’ he said on the basis of our enquiry thus far, that the saucers are staffed by small men – probably under four feet tall. It is frightening, but there is no denying that the flying saucers come from another planet.

It is widely believed that Kilgallen’s source was Earl Louis Mountbatten who discussed this with her at a cocktail party in May 1955. But the story has also been dismissed as a hoax by many. Mountbatten was a firm believer that UFOs were extra-terrestrial and one of his staff even reported sighting one close to the Mountbatten home, ‘Broadlands’ in Hampshire.

Linking Sir Anthony Eden’s short time as Prime Minister with connection to UFO issues is difficult. Although earlier in his political career he did make an interesting observation.

Whilst many are familiar with Ronald Reagan’s comments at the United Nations regarding an alien threat in the 1980s, Churchill’s successor and then Foreign Secretary, Sir Anthony Eden had also given a speech in 1947 on a similar theme at a United Nations Association rally at the Albert Hall, on March 1st 1947.

Sometimes I think the people of this distracted planet will never really get together until they find someone in [sic] Mars to get mad against........

Sources :
airminded.org...

www.tinyurl.com...

Whether Ronald Reagan was inspired by this speech, or had even heard it, I don’t know.
It did inspire author Bernard Newman. Newman wrote the fictional novel The Flying Saucer (published 1948). A tale of scientists who fake flying saucer crashes in order to fool governments into believing that there is indeed an extraterrestrial threat and to unite together.

Newman’s own background is interesting but probably out of the scope of this thread.

Harold MacMillan

10 January 1957 – 18 October 1963


Harold Macmillan was the last British prime minister born during the Victorian age and also the last to have served in World War I. It is known that Leonard Stringfield had written to the Presidents of the US, USSR and France and Macmillan asking for the UFO all vital information relative to UFOs be released to news services. Stringfield was also proposing that the United Nations would be the best organisation to study UFOs.

The United Nations serving in this new capacity, should remind man-on-earth he must forget his boundaries and ideologies and work together in this new era of challenge.

Source www.presidentialufo.com...

Macmillan’s reaction is unknown. Although it seemed Eisenhower had Stringfield placed on his secret service watch list after reading his letter!

During Macmillan’s tenure one or two questions came up in the House regarding unidentified objects. One confirming there was no special collaboration with Canada or the US over the UFO problem.

Unidentified Flying Objects
HC Deb 21 January 1959 vol 598 c37W 37W

Mr. Mason - asked the Secretary of State for Air what specific instructions have been sent to the commanders of Royal Air Force stations to collect reports from air crews having allegedly sighted unidentified flying objects; what inquiries have been held following such sightings; and to what extent there is collaboration between his Department and the respective departments in Canada and the United States of America on this problem.

Mr. Ward - R.A.F. units have standing instructions to report unusual flying objects when they cannot readily be explained. Reports which may have a bearing on air defence are investigated. No special collaboration with Canada or the United States is required.

Source : hansard.millbanksystems.com...

Another dealt with a strange 8 foot saucer shaped depression or crater that was found in Charlton, Wiltshire and an accompanying crop circle formation in July 1963 that was investigated by astronomer Patrick Moore. The story at the time was that a spaceship had landed for repairs in a farmer’s field. Patrick Moore declared that a meteorite had fallen to earth.

It seems the Army were sent to investigate but left the scene after deciding there was no unexploded bomb.

Crater, Charlton
HC Deb 01 August 1963 vol 682 c168W 168W

Mr. Wall - asked the Secretary of State for Air what were the findings of the two Royal Air Force officials who investigated the crater at Charlton, Wiltshire; and whether investigations by his Department are continuing.

Mr. H. Fraser - From my inquiries, I have no reason to think that anything happened in the area which would justify further investigation by the Air Ministry.

Source : Hansard

Courtey: FSR

Crater, Charlton (Investigation)

HC Deb 01 August 1963 vol 682 c174W 174W

Mr. Wall - asked the Secretary of State for War whether investigations by his Department into the cause of the crater at Charlton, Wiltshire, are continuing.

Mr. Godber - The Army was concerned only to discover whether the crater could contain an unexploded bomb. Nothing of this nature was found and the Bomb Disposal Unit left the site on Friday, 26th July.

Source : Hansard

After investigation the object found in the crater was in fact not a meteorite but ironstone. Something found commonly in the area. The Charlton Crater has also been explained as the after effects of a lightning strike but seems to still be somewhat of a mystery.

The MoD, at least publically, showed no interest in solving the case. 

Alec Douglas-Home

19 October 1963 – 16 October 1964


He didn’t last long as PM having taken over from Macmillan.

One alleged major UFO incident The Cannock Chase/Penkridge case occurred on Alec’s watch. This involves the story of the US Navy tracking a UFO over Europe. Due to malfunction part of the UFO supposedly crashed to earth near Penkridge, Staffordshire. The rest of the craft came down in Germany. Roadblocks were supposedly put in place and dead alien bodies retrieved from the crash site with the assistance of US military.

There is no mention of this case on the official record. Nor anything that can be traced back to the government or the Prime Minister.

Further reading:
www.birminghammail.co.uk...
penkridge64.blogspot.co.uk...

 

Harold Wilson

16 October 1964 – 19 June 1970 and 4 March 1974 – 5 April 1976


One World Cup and a couple of Eurovision song contest wins were chalked up as the successes for Harold Wilson. Wilson is also linked with a conspiracy theory that he was a Soviet plant and another that the Establishment were planning a military coup against him whilst in office. But what did he know about UFOs?

When questioned in Parliament he seemed to be uttering familiar negative responses and refused to commission a specific department to assess the UFO issue.

UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS

HC Deb 19 July 1966 vol 732 c379 379

Q7. Sir J. Langford-Holt - asked the Prime Minister whether, in view of the fact that the Secretary of State for Defence is responsible only for the air defence implications of the reports of unidentified flying objects, he will allocate to a Department the duty of assessing the wider implications of these reports.

The Prime Minister - No, Sir.

Sir J. Langford-Holt - Is the Prime Minister aware that enormous numbers of these reports are coming in to the Government from people, not all of whom are cranks? Would it not be appropriate, without myself knowing very much about the origins or significance of these items, that somebody in the Government at least should take a serious interest in them?

The Prime Minister - These matters are taken seriously when the reports which are received are sufficiently detailed to enable a check to be made. In very many cases there are natural phenomena, or less natural phenomena such as balloons, aircraft, and so on. Where it has not been possible to get a satisfactory explanation, it is usually because the information has been too inadequate or imprecise for investigation.

Mr. Hogg - Is it not well known that these unidentified flying objects are the chickens coming home to roost in the ruins of the right hon. Gentleman's reputation?

The Prime Minister - I seem to remember thinking that question rather funny when it was put by the right hon. Member for Flint, West (Mr. Birch) six years ago.

Mr. Shinwell - In view of the fact that the Opposition are always looking for mares' nests, could not my right hon. Friend undertake this task of looking for unidentified objects?

Source : Hansard

Harold had a lot more to worry about than UFOs in his final term and eventually tendered his resignation due to ill health and also in the secret belief that dark forces were working behind the scenes to undermine him.

Edward Heath

19 June 1970 – 4 March 1974



Edward Heath came to power at a time of economic and social problems, particularly in Northern Ireland.

A number of questions were raised to ministers in Parliament during his tenure. Most of them continued the usual line of UFOs being misidentification, natural phenomena and hoaxes. Insufficient information was another phrase that was often used to explain away sightings.

Towards the very end of Heath’s time as PM, what is now considered, one of Britain’s major UFO cases occurred in late January 1974 in the Berwyn Mountains range in North Wales. There are a number of stories related to the incident including, a crashed UFO, a landed UFO and military manoeuvres in the Irish Sea, North Wales and North West England. One story even involves aliens being transported by Special Forces from North Wales to Porton Down.



However at the time it seems to have prompted little speculation. The Berwyn incident was explained away as an earth tremor and a meteorite or a satellite rocket breaking up in the atmosphere.

Some speculation exists that the Geological survey that followed in North Wales was a cover for something more suspicious however no official enquiry was ever made into the incident according to correspondence contained in the released file : DEFE 24-2045-1.

Edward Heath’s personal views on UFOs remain unknown.
 

James Callaghan

5 April 1976 – 4 May 1979




A man who never expected to be Prime Minister, taking over after Harold Wilson tendered his resignation. Callaghan faced rampant inflation, mounting industrial strife and had to rely on a pact with the Liberal party to maintain the slimmest of majorities. His three years in charge were a bookending for the post-war Labour Party who split into factions shortly after.

Two high profile political events regarding UFOs did however take place during his reign as well as the spaceman sightings by schoolchildren at Broadhaven in Wales in early 1977.

In 1977, Eric Gairy, the prime minister of the Caribbean island of Grenada, was generating support for establishing an international committee dedicated to studying records, sharing UFO reports, and calling on the U.N. General Assembly to make 1978 'the year of the UFO.' It has to be said that many nations were lukewarm to the idea.



In the British National Archives (DEFE 24/2032) a document shows the United Kingdom's desire to oppose such a UFO committee, claiming it would ultimately cause the U.N. to fall into some sort of disrepute:

The British delegation does not think that the establishment of an agency for research into unidentified flying objects is appropriate to the functions of the United Nations. ...
Hopefully, a confrontation with the representatives of Grenada can be avoided, but the U.K. should not hesitate to make its views known as and when appropriate. ...

Foreign and Commonwealth Office ministers presented an alternative viewpoint that such a body would reduce the credibility of the U.N. The U.K. delegation was instructed to oppose Gairy’s proposal with an implication that other Commonwealth nations should follow suit.



Nevertheless, on behalf of PM Gairy, Lee Speigel organized presentations in November 1978 to the UN Assembly. Speeches by Stanton Friedman, Jacques Valles and J. Allen Hynek were presented to the UN delegates. Spiegel later commented that the US State Dept. was carefully watching. It is likely that allies from Whitehall were too.


House of Lords UFO Debate 1979

Then on January 18th, 1979 came the only full debate on UFOs held in the British Parliament. The debate was one of the best ever attended. Despite a rail strike, and industrial disputes crippling the nation, 60 peers took part and hundreds of onlookers – including famous UFO researchers packed the gallery.





At 7pm Lord Clancarty opened the session by bringing the Houses’ attention to the increasing number of UFO reports across the globe. He expressed a need for an intra-governmental study of UFOs. He ended by asking the Government to reveal publicly what they knew about the phenomenon.

The numbers of speakers climbed into double figures as various elements for and against the implementation of such a study were debated. However the MoD had prepared their man, Lord Strabolgi, well in advance.

At around 10.10pm he rose to speak. He described the unimaginable distances to even the nearest stars and how unlikely interstellar space travel was. He declared that nothing had been detected that indicated the planet was threatened with alien invasion. Rebutting Clancarty's claim that evidence existed with thousands of sightings he said :



Above: Labour Lord Strabolgi (David Kenworthy)

.......there is nothing to convince the Government that there has ever been a single visit by an alien spacecraft…..As for telling the public the truth about UFOs, the truth is simple. There really are many strange phenomena in the sky, and these are invariably reported by rational people. But there is a wide range of natural explanations to account for such phenomena. There is nothing to suggest to Her Majesty's Government that such phenomena are alien spacecraft.

Lord Clancarty ultimately failed to persuade the Defence Minister to make a public televised statement on what the government knew about UFOs.

Was that because the government didn’t have anything to reveal or perhaps because the government didn’t want to reveal anything?

Margaret Thatcher

4 May 1979 – 28 November 1990



Maggie was Britain’s longest serving Prime Minister of modern times and the only female to have held the position in the UK to date. Both loved and loathed for tough but divisive policies that have moulded the Britain of today.

But what did she know about the UFO issue?

Of all of UK Prime Ministers of the 20th Century her quote 'You Can’t Tell the People' on the UFO subject is perhaps the best known having entered UFO folklore. It is also the title of a well known book by Georgina Bruni.

Thatcher was Prime Minister during Britain’s best known UFO incident in Rendlesham Forest during the Christmas period in 1980. The main witnesses to the case were USAF personnel from the twin bases of Woodbridge and Bentwaters in East Anglia.



It is also fairly common knowledge that nuclear weapons were stored there despite the reluctance of a number of witnesses to say so. Something that Thatcher would (or at least should) have been aware of and how on the face of it this violated the treaty of the time between the US and UK.

A 1985 letter to the then UK Defence Secretary, Michael Heseltine from the late Lord Hill-Norton said the sightings of unidentified flying objects in Rendlesham Forest had puzzling and disquieting features that have never been satisfactorily explained.

My personal view, having considered the fragmentary but compelling evidence brought to public knowledge by the media, is that the case cannot be disposed of in these rather perfunctory terms, Lord Hill-Norton wrote. If the report made by the USAF authorities in January 1981 is accurate, there is evidence that British airspace and territory are vulnerable to unwarranted intrusion to a disturbing degree.

Hill-Norton went on to claim that the case could not be disposed of in perfunctory terms and if the reports were accurate then British airspace was vulnerable to unwarranted intrusions. If the reports from the USAF were dismissed then this was no less disturbing, as a sizeable number of USAF personnel on British territory were capable of serious misperception. The consequences of which might be grave in military terms. Hill-Norton continued to ask questions about this incident into the 21st century.



One of the first times the Rendlesham issue crops up in Parliament was 24 October 1983 with Sir Patrick Wall discussing the now infamous Halt Memo.

RAF Woodbridge (Alleged Incident)
HC Deb 24 October 1983 vol 47 cc61-2W 61W

Sir Patrick Wall asked the Secretary of State for Defence

(1) if he has seen the United States Air Force memo dated 13 January 1981 concerning unexplained lights near RAF Woodbridge;

(2) whether, in view of the fact that the United State's Air Force memo of 13 January 1981 on the incident at RAF Woodbridge has been released under the Freedom of Information Act, he will now release reports and documents concerning similar unexplained incidents in the United Kingdom;

(3) how many unexplained sightings or radar intercepts have taken place since 1980?

Mr. Stanley - I have seen the memorandum of 13 January 1981 to which my hon. Friend refers. Since 1980 the Department has received 1,400 reports of sightings of flying objects which the observers have been unable to identify. There were no corresponding unexplained radar contacts. Subject to normal security constraints, I am ready to give information about any such reported sightings that are found to be a matter of concern from a defence standpoint, but there have been none to date.

Source :hansard.millbanksystems.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow">Hansard

The Ministry of Defence had held firm and fast to their ‘public’ view that UFOs are of no threat from a defence point of view for decades. This continued into the new century.

But before the last century was out, in 1997, socialite and writer Georgina Bruni revealed that she had met Margaret Thatcher face-to-face at a charity function in London and taken the opportunity to quiz her about UFOs and the Rendlesham incident as she was researching a book on the case.

With an opportunity she couldn’t miss, Bruni asked the former PM for her comment on UFOs and what world leaders may really know about the topic. Lady Thatcher’s response was a curt:



‘You can’t tell the people’

With her body guard and husband Dennis lurking close by, Bruni then pursued the question further and according to Bruni the following conversation took place.

Bruni - UFOs and alien technology, Lady Thatcher.

Lady Thatcher - You must get your facts right.

Bruni - What facts?

You must have the facts and you can’t tell the people.

Margaret Thatcher passed away in April 2013 and never did tell the people.

Georgina Bruni (who is also sadly no longer with us) did theorize in her book:

…convinced that they [i.e occupants of UFOs] are time travellers from our future or another dimension… would account for why there is reluctance from our governments to reveal the truth about these encounters. How would you tell the people that there is an intelligence far more advanced than we are, who are capable of creating such incredible technology?

Source : You Can’t Tell the People

The sceptical view is that it was simply Lady Thatcher making it clear that no matter what the actual facts were that the people ( ‘UFO believers’) would never accept what they were told by the government.

If that was the case then her answer was uncharacteristically unclear for a politician who was once very adept at getting her point over in a very precise way.

John Major

28 November 1990 – 2 May 1997



Britain’s very own little ‘grey man’ lasted over six years in power, during the global changes from the aftermath of the collapse of the Communist Bloc and the formation of the European state. He also, secretly, enjoyed a Curry every now and again!

There were a number of UFO incidents during Major’s tenure, perhaps most famously; the Nick Pope promoted Cosford incident in 1993 (many sceptics claim this was a Russian booster rocket returning to earth and a police helicopter searchlight).




Towards the end of Major’s time in power the intriguing Sheffield UFO Incident occurred in March 1997 when two sonic booms were heard along with reports of a large triangular UFO chasing RAF fighters and reports of an aircraft crash on the moors . This was the time that the phrase ...of no defence significance became the catchphrase of the MoD whenever UFOs were mentioned.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/vy503d57a2.jpg[/atsimg]

This was also a time when public awareness of the UFO topic began to grow with the popularity of TV shows like the X-Files and the hype about the 50th anniversary of whatever is supposed to have happened in Roswell in 1947.

Whilst the public record attributes little to John Major a number of questions came up in parliament during his period in power. These were, in the main, addressed to Secretary of State for Defence:

Unidentified Objects (Rendlesham Forest)

Mr. Redmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his answer of 7 May, Official Report, columns 19-20, if he will list the titles of the papers held by his Department in respect of unidentified objects seen in Rendlesham forest, Suffolk; and if he will make a statement. [31490]

Mr. Soames: Apart from a report of the events written at the time by the United States air force deputy base commander at RAF Woodbridge, which has been in the public domain for a number of years, the documents held by my Department are internal staffing papers and correspondence from members of the public relating to the alleged events.

10 Jun 1996 : Column: 43

Source :
publications.parliament.uk

Further questions about Rendlesham asking why no apparent action was taken by the MoD on receipt of the Halt Memo were asked. The response being that the staff at that time thought the events were of no defence significance

A query asking for an assessment of a patrol of RAF Tornado aircraft flying over the North sea that were overtaken at high speed by an unidentified craft on Nov 5th 1990 and the unidentified craft seen by the meteorological officer at RAF Shawbury in the early hours of 31 March 1993 (The Cosford incident mentioned earlier). The response was entirely predictable.

No firm conclusions were drawn about the nature of the phenomena reported but the events were not judged to be of defence significance.

There was also a request to know who removed a certain photograph that Nick Pope often talks fondly of. The photo taken at Calvine on 4 August 1990 showed a strange triangular craft. A blow-up of it was placed on the wall in an MoD office by Pope himself. The reason for its removal was also requested.

A number of negatives associated with the sighting were examined by staff responsible for air defence matters. Since it was judged that they contained nothing of defence significance the negatives were not retained and we have no record of any photographs having been taken from them.

Source for all above : publications.parliament.uk

On 17 October 1996 the Prime Minister did answer a question directly. Very similar questions were asked a number of times during the 1990s in slightly different forms. The response was always the same from the government of the day. The government does not investigate the extra-terrestrial issue or UFOs and it’s only interest is for defence purposes.

Unidentified Flying Objects

Mr. Redmond: - To ask the Prime Minister if he will allocate to a department the assessments of the non-air defence implications associated with unidentified flying objects; and if he will make a statement. [40822]

The Prime Minister: - The air defence and air traffic implications of unidentified flying objects are the responsibility of the Ministry of Defence and the Civil Aviation Authority respectively. The Government have no plans to allocate resources to researching extraterrestrial phenomena.

Source : publications.parliament.uk

On 11 Nov 1996 a question was asked about the Triangle UFOs tracked by the Belgian Air Force in 1990 and yet another question asking for an assessment of radiation readings reported by Col. Charles Halt, USAF at the alleged landing site of an unknown craft in Rendlesham Forest 1980.

Mr. Redmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when United Kingdom military personnel were briefed about the scrambling of Belgian F-16 aircraft on 30 and 31 March 1990; when the unidentified flying object concerned was detected on United Kingdom radar systems; and if RAF aircraft were scrambled. [3185]

Mr. Soames: The Belgian authorities did not notify adjacent countries because no threat was perceived. There is no evidence of radar contacts within the UK air defence system.

Mr. Redmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if the radiation readings, reported to his Department by Lieutenant Colonel Charles Halt on 13th January 1981, were judged to have posed any threat to Lieutenant Colonel Halt and his team; who assessed the readings; how the radiation compared with background radiation in the area; and if he will make a statement. [2934]

Mr. Soames: There is no record of any official assessment of the radiation readings reported by Lieutenant Colonel Halt.

Source : publications.parliament.uk

Strictly speaking they were not lying. But there had been a number of discussions about the topic and even Nick Pope had questioned the level of the radiation in a cold case review during his time at the ‘UFO desk’ in the mid-1990s.

Tony Blair

2 May 1997 – 27 June 2007



Tony Blair managed a tongue twisting, ten year, tenure as Prime Minister. He won three general elections and for a while his Cool Britannia policies gave a feel good factor back to Britain after almost two decades of Tory rule until his popularity waned after the war in Iraq.

Blair was also officially briefed on the UFO issue in 1998. The MoD briefing was prepared for Blair after author Nick Redfern wrote to the prime minister and urged him to make all U.K. UFO reports available to the public. Redfern's request came at the same time that Blair was about to create the United Kingdom’s Freedom of Information Act.

It was felt that the PM needed a background in what information on UFOS was going to be requested from the public and released under the new act.

In his memoirs, Blair declared this as one of his greatest mistakes while in office, calling it utterly undermining of sensible government. Blair may have believed there were WMDs in Iraq but we do not know if he believed in ET.





DEFE 24/1987/1 – Nick Redfern Letter to the PM



Here are some of the many Parliamentary records regarding questions relating to UFO activity during Tony Blair’s time as PM.
The following relate to the Howden Moor (or Sheffield) UFO Incident from the evening of the 24th March 1997.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/li503d5816.jpg[/atsimg]

Low Flying Training

Helen Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) what complaints were received by the RAF concerning low-flying aircraft relating to 24 March 1997; [36407]

(2) If RAF/NATO military aircraft were engaged on an exercise over Northern England between 9.30 and 10.30 pm on 24 March 1997; [36404]

(3) For what reasons the RAF imposed an air exclusion zone around Howden reservoir on the morning of 25 March 1997; [36408]

(4) What reported sightings of UFOs were received from the (a) public and (b) police from the South Yorkshire/ Derbyshire area on 24 and 25 March 1997. [36402]

Mr. Spellar: A number of military aircraft were booked to carry out low flying training in northern England on the evening of 24 March 1997. The Ministry of Defence received 13 complaints about aircraft activity for that date from locations across the UK. No reported sightings of UFOs on 24 or 25 March 1997 were received by my Department. A Temporary Danger Area was established on 25 March, centred on Howden Reservoir, to allow an RAF Search and Rescue helicopter,

30 Mar 1998: Column: 415

In response to a request for assistance from South Yorkshire Police, to carry out a search of the area without disturbance by other military aircraft. Such Danger Areas are routinely established for Search and Rescue operations.

Helen Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if an RAF/NATO aircraft was responsible for the two sonic booms above Sheffield detected by Edinburgh University Seismology Unit at 21.52 and 22.06 on 24 March 1997. [36405]

Mr. Spellar: We have no record of sonic events being generated by RAF or NATO aircraft for the evening of 24 March 1997.

The questions about this incident did not go away. But the Defence Minister was adamant that the two sonic booms heard were not caused by RAF or NATO aircraft.

Low Flying Training

Helen Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his answers of 30 March 1998, Official Report, column 414, if the military exercises were carried out over the Sheffield area; what regulations govern (a) military and (b) other aircraft breaking the sound barrier; and if the sonic booms detected by Edinburgh University Seismology Unit above Sheffield, on 24 March 1997 were the result of aircraft breaking the sound barrier. [37991]

Mr. Spellar: It is not possible, twelve months after the date in question, to state precisely where military aircraft activity was being carried out. Records kept show only that aircraft were booked to carry out low flying over the Peak District between 2030 and 2107 hours local time on the evening of 24 March 1997. No low level flying is permitted over the Sheffield urban area, or any other major conurbation. Records of flying at medium level--between 2,000 and 24,000 feet--are not maintained so it is possible that there were aircraft in the area at medium level.

The regulations governing military aircraft flying at supersonic speeds are contained in the Joint Service Publication entitled 'Military Flying Regulations', an extract of which was provided in the answer I gave her on 1 April 1998, Official Report, columns 547-48. The regulations which apply to civil aviation are a matter for my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions.

As for the sonic event detected by the British Geological Survey at Edinburgh University, I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave her on 30 March 1998, Official Report, columns 414-15.

Notably ,Spellar (Defence Secretary) was also stating that the RAF aircraft were back at base by 21:07 around an hour before sonic booms were heard by locals and recorded. Pilots are required by law to report it even if they only suspect their aircraft has ‘gone supersonic’.

So what was flying around Sheffield and the Peak District that night?

It seems the government (which in fairness had changed by the time questions were brought to Parliament) did not know.
The RAF Press spokesman also commented on the events:

......It has happened before, not so much now but certainly in the past. Radar is constantly looking out and can spot incoming objects, and we have a requirement to defend the UK from attack, whether that be from Libya or from Mars. But often we find objects picked up on radar are caused by people in light aircraft wandering onto the screens and not having notified us. We are only interested in establishing if there is a threat to UK airspace.

We don’t discount there may be unexplained phenomena in the sky, but we are not funded to investigate them. We would admit the fact if we had chased a UFO. There were no intercept missions that night. There is no cover-up. We don’t know what caused the sightings and the sonic booms and the whole thing remains a mystery to us. We don’t know what went on and there will always be people who seize on mysteries like this to make claims about cover-ups.

Source: www.uk-ufo.org...

The RAF were not paid to find out and so it seems we will never truly know.

Gordon Brown

27 June 2007 – 11 May 2010




It all went sour for Gordon when the global recession began to bite in 2008. Despite being a highly competent politician it was always felt he lacked the charisma of his predecessor Tony Blair.

Brown was the Prime Minister who oversaw the closure of the Ministry of Defence ‘UFO Desk’ . The official reason being given that the desk...

....serves no defence purpose and merely encourages the generation of correspondence ‟

In 2009, Defence Minister Bob Ainsworth was told

...in more than 50 years...no UFO sighting reported to [MoD] has ever revealed anything to suggest an extra-terrestrial presence or military threat to the UK

Source : BBC news

Gordon Brown was closely involved in the Gary McKinnon case and even personally requested President Obama to review the case and drop the request to extradite Mckinnon.

Mckinnon hacked into computers at NASA, the US Department of Defense and other government departments in an attempt to discover the truth about alien technology and UFOs. He even claimed to have seen a list of Non-Terrestrial Officers on one machine.



Gary McKinnon BBC interview

Brown was out of office before a resolution to the dispute was found.

David Cameron

11 May 2010 – present



David Cameron took power in coalition with the Liberal Democrats in 2010 in the aftermath of the global meltdown. The Gary McKinnon case carried on into his premiership and negotiations were continued with the USA eventually leading to Theresa May, the UK Home Secretary, to announce on Tuesday 16th October that Gary McKinnon would not be extradited to the USA.



Cameron was also asked by UK researcher Richard Hall on the ET question before he came to power.

I'm convinced we have been visited by alien life forms - and one of them is the trade secretary Peter Mandelson.
I have no idea there is intelligent life out there and no idea whether any of the sightings which have taken place or whether any incidents which have taken place have any basis in truth.

I do believe in freedom of information and openness and this question has been asked from time to time and I think we should be as open and clear as possible.

What has tended to happen when people have looked at the Roswell incident, or when people have looked at pictures, is a rational explanation tends to be produced to try and show what has happened is not what those who believe in UFOs suggest.
But I think we should be a open as possible, so I would be quite happy to give you a guarantee that if I became prime minister I would always be entirely open and frank about these things.

I don't think any of us have any clue whether there's intelligent life out there and it is certainly not something that any Government should seek to hide from anyone.

Source: Telegraph UK

Despite using a joke, like so many have done since the 1950s, to diffuse the question, Cameron did then seem to give a very earnest answer. As a man who entered the world in a time after Sir Winston Churchill had already passed away perhaps he has a very different attitude to the war generation? After all it is now more than 50 years since Winston's alleged statement to cover-up the UFO problem.

Whether he now knows anything now he is Prime Minister is debatable. Many believe that Prime Ministers and Presidents come and go so often that they are kept out of the UFO information loop.

There is no “smoking gun” amongst the official records to lead anyone to conclude that the government of the UK have proof of what UFOs actually are. There is some proof that the topic has been covered up or ignored even when the issue “of defence significance” seems to be very relevant.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/kp53d013ef.gif[/atsimg]

But unless there are some secret reports that have never been released...and it's difficult to prove a negative............ it seems the truth is still out there............somewhere.

Even if the MoD is no longer "officially" investigating any sightings.

Thanks for a great thread..
It comes to mind that only ONE of the millions of UFO sightings out there have to be true to turn our reality upside down

Although the sources have been linked in the main parts of the thread I'd also like to thank IsaacKoi for his thread :

UFOs in Parliament

It was not the sole basis for the thread but it was a very handy reference.

This thread is one for ATS history along with many others with so much data to look at, well done with all this and I can't wait to start reading it tomorrow.

S&F for effort and time put into this!

This is why i joined ATS in the first place, it's quality like this that made it stand out.
Well done sir!

Look forward to reading this in the morning..

Star AND Flag

Very worth wile read. Thanks for the effort put forth!

It doesn't provide many answers, but it does raise new questions. There were some cases I had never heard of and I'll try to research some of them when I can.

I believe the US also uses a term similar to "no defense significance" in answer to UFO questions. It's a brilliant answer if you believe the governments know what they are and have had contact with them. If the time eventually comes to admit the contact to the world, they can always just reaffirm that they always told us there was no defense significance, which was true as there were never any "unidentified" objects of hostile intent flying in our skies, only known friendly extraterrestrials!

a reply to: mirageman

Simply an Amazing Thread....
S&F.
Thaks for this.

This will be the "hot knife in the butter" of the pseudo-debunkers

a reply to: mirageman

Loooks like a lot of work gone into an interesting post. Don't have time now but want to earmark it for later.

Just skimmed the thread, I might read more of it later.

My opinions, based on personal experience, the experiences of friends and others, and keeping an eye on media accounts (however incredible most are), is that there are Extra Terrestrial being known to Earth and to governments.

The apparent consensus is that there is an international 'lips sealed' policy as yet from nation's governments.

The UK would never admit to anything if the US is denying it for example, and so to other allegiance nations.

Perhaps the purpose of the 'lips sealed' policy is for national and international stability. After all, a being of the Universe that is not of Earth with probably infinitely superior intelligence and abilities might be considered something of a threat, however well intentioned, by those of limited intelligence or ability for comprehending reality as it truly is rather than as the media tells them to see it.

If the bigger picture of how nations are structured and the media utilised for mind control is considered, it is obvious that 'human and ego centric' is being pumped out to the populations of nations in some sort of extreme propaganda experiment that has caused a false sense of security in humanity of 'ownership' of Earth, of the land and buildings, of property and belongings, of control of the water, the air, the sky, the minerals in the rocks, the people in nations, everything, everywhere, even in companies, the sense of 'ownership' is all pervasive.

The very fact that there are beings in greater control that are not sold into 'ownership' Earth style as a lifestyle choice, that could offer new information on how to live more constructively and harmoniously in the Universe, a better way, a way forward that isn't lining the pockets of the 1% at the expense of the many is probably too much for those of egotistical controlling 'Earth ownership'.

The cascade effect is all too apparent, those serving only their own egotism in lesser ways might not take kindly to new ways or opinions that doesn't fit their 'ego ethics'.

Perhaps there will be disclosure in a constructive way, perhaps things are leading to that. Thanks to the internet, more truth is being considered and known and would supercede any government stance anyway.

a reply to: theabsolutetruth

Thanks for a thought provoking post. The theory of a global cover-up is a long established one and there are hints that Britain and the US (probably along with other Western Allies) have concealed the truth at times. The evidence available suggests this was more fear of the unknown than proof of aliens.

The other question is would such tightly held secret be sustainable across a number of generations and in a world where certain nations are firmly opposed and even hostile to Western nations?

Of course this also relies on the silence of the ever elusive "aliens" too.

But then again maybe the truth about them is so frightening or inconceivable that it has to be kept a secret and they are happy to keep it that way. Perhaps they 'steal our souls'?

All I can say from a personal stance is that since the internet came along it has been much easier to identify hoaxes and despite all the released material on UFOs we are still to find that real "smoking gun" piece of evidence.

But I do love the speculation.

Excellent thread, thank you for taking the time out to post it all out. Plenty there to get stuck into.

I'm inclined to think that Prime Ministers and Governments seem to be as much in the dark as we are. I think most investigations they do are exercises in trying to find out if other nations have secret projects operating in UK airspace, and are probably surprised by some of the more inexplicable ones that have come across the desk.