The Ministry of Defence has recently released secret files on supposed ‘UFO’ sightings. Covering the period from 1978 onwards, they include accounts of ‘unexplained objects and strange lights in the sky.’

I like to think I’m a fairly open minded guy, and I’m always open to new ideas, but having flicked through a few pages of the documents (which can be downloaded from the National Archives website) I think its hilarious and ridiculous that some of these sightings even make it into a story for your mates at the pub, let alone a full-scale MOD investigation.

One document reveals how in a pub in Tunbridge Wells, a group of staff and customers reported an unknown object with green and red flashing lights – seen heading in the direction of Gatwick Airport.

Now I’m no genius, and I don’t claim to be well learned in UFOlogy or aircraft recognition, but I do know that when I’ve had a few drinks down the pub I can’t see too well. I also know that planes happen to have red and green lights, and that they tend to land at airports.

I’d like to think that someone would have put two and two together and considered the outrageously unimaginable possibility that it could, in fact, just be a plane.

Alien activity also seems to crop up in areas where, let’s face it, the folk are a bit simple. I come from a small town in Devon, so I’m not exactly a metrosexual, sophisticated, high-flying city dweller, but I do know that the people of Kent, as well as Norfolk – which is famous (or indeed infamous) for its crop circles – tend to be one alien short of an invasion, and seem to be convinced that anything unexplainable is alien activity.

I think the thing that most amazes me is people’s readiness to accept the most outrageous possibility as the most likely explanation. Admittedly, if I were to stumble across a strange aircraft on the ground at night I would probably steer well clear of it and consider that, just maybe, it could be a UFO, but as a rationally-thinking human being I still think I would come up with a few better, more plausible ideas first.

In another article, one man explained in great detail his “physical and psychic contact” with green aliens since he was a child. I have a lot of problems with this story. First of all, ‘green aliens’ is such as cliché. If you’re going to make up a story, at least be original and say they have zebra stripes, flashing warty skin or something more interesting.

Secondly, he implies that he has had repeated contact with these extra-terrestrial beings; if he wants to get people to believe him, why has he not somehow recorded these meetings by hiding cameras or at least reporting each event as it happens?

I’m not saying that I definitely don’t believe in ‘aliens’; the sheer number of planets in the universe makes it mathematically unlikely that we live on the only habitable planet that exists. I’m also open to the idea that if there are alien races as developed as us then they, like us, probably indulge in a bit of space travel, so it is technically possible that ET may pop down for a visit.

I just think that the evidence for UFOs and related government conspiracy theories is so weak that, as of yet, there have been no ‘aliens’ on Earth. SH

The truth is, as they say, out there. Literally. Or, at least, the reports of it now are. Under the Freedom of Information Act, the Government has had to release to the National Archives previously classified and confidential military reports on UFOs. All that you now have to do is tap “national archives UFO” into Google and you’re there. Unfortunately, a lot of these seem to be written in ‘militaryspeak’ and are fairly unintelligible to the general public (I know I struggled), leaving only the simplified table versions as comprehensible.

However, even in these dumbed-down formats, the files provide some intriguing information. Some of it’s fit for a bloody good laugh, mind. Obviously if you’re drunk in rural Wales and see a far-off white thing on a hillside then yes, it’s pretty likely that you’re seeing a sheep. I’d call the local farmer on that one, not the authorities. Other reports are frustratingly vague, such as ‘lights’ or ‘something in the sky’. One of my favourites was the stunningly dense ‘the object was definitely unusual and was a possible UFO sighting’. Of course it was, love.

OK, OK, so we can all point and laugh at the nutjobs who think that they’ve been taken away by the little green men. But its interesting to note that one of the first documents that the National Archives’ UFO microsite directs you towards is a “briefing” document providing an overview. This document reassuringly states that 90% of UFO sightings can be explained as a result of everyday phenomena and are nothing to do with the extraterrestrial. 90%? Where does that leave the other 10%? Given that the records for 2007 show just over 130 reported UFO sightings, this leaves around 13 potential UFOs unexplained.

Most convincing, in my opinion, are the reports coming from pilots. Seeing as they spend a damn sight more of their time in the sky than your average person, I’d like to think that they’ve got the best idea of what sort of things can usually be found flying about up there. On April 23rd 2007, two separate airborne pilots saw two ‘bright orange/yellow’ objects in the skies near Alderney. OK, I can accept that one pilot could be mistaken, but two?

This seems to hark back to the days of WWII, when many pilots claimed to see strange, fireball-like lights which seemed to appear from nowhere and follow their planes – the infamously mysterious “foo fighters”. Originally assumed to be secret Nazi technology, it was later discovered that German pilots had experienced the same phenomena. As far as I’m aware, there has yet to be an explanation.

Yes, I do believe that aliens exist. Quite frankly, I think it’d be cocky not to. There are infinite stars out there, and therefore quite probably infinite other solar systems and planets. What are the odds that we’re the only ones? Put it this way – I’d not be rushing into Ladbroke’s just yet if I were you.

We launch exploratory missions into space, so why shouldn’t other species? Assuming that we’re the most intelligent bunch out there would be just as cocky. I mean, we’ve succeeded in potentially trashing our planet through global warming, have twice elected that cretin George W. Bush and are still infinitely fascinated by a box which shows us talking pictures. We’re hardly the fastest rocket ship in the galaxy.

Maybe not every UFO is an alien spaceship waiting to land, but with tons of unexplained sightings, how can we rule it out? ED