One thing that the British are known for is their stiff upper lip – not only that but we’re a nation of complainers. We also like to know things, whether it’s what our government are spending taxes on or indeed, if we’re investigating aliens. On 14th of May, in an unprecedented move, due to a number of Freedom of Information requests the British government has released a large number of papers that reveal how and when UFO sightings have been investigated.

The 160 files – the first eight of which, covering 1978-1987 – throw up no “saucer-in-a-hangar smoking gun” in the skies, apparently. However, the papers, viewable on the National Archives’ website, do show that officials conducted a full investigation into every claimed sighting until the 1980s. The files, one of which is more than 450 pages long, show that since the 1950s thousands of seemingly ordinary people have claimed UFO sightings in this country.

So what does it really tell us? Well, it’s clear from the evidence that the UK had looked at UFO sightings long after the US government had ‘officially’ stopped looking, not that it means very much. There are also some ‘expert witnesses’ in the list – people I’d say who are just as fallible as the rest of us when seeing something that they don’t comprehend.

Whatever the true meaning of these sightings are, these papers make for fascinating reading. I for one will spend the weekend trawling through and trying to make sense of this modern day phenomena with very ancient roots.

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