A Welsh Assembly Minister (AM) recently asked the Welsh government three questions about UFO sightings and how the Welsh government handles them. The Welsh government replied in the make-believe Star Trek language of Klingon.
AM Daren Millar, a conservative (Tory) in the Welsh Assembly for Clwyd West, submitted three questions to the Minister of Economy, Science and Transport.
He asked:
- “Will the Minister make a statement on how many reports of unidentified flying objects there have been at Cardiff Airport since its acquisition by the Welsh Government?”
- “What discussions has the Welsh Government had with the Ministry of Defence regarding sightings of unidentified objects in Wales in each of the past five years?”
- “What consideration has the Welsh Government given to the finding of research into sightings of unidentified objects in Wales?”
According to Wales Online, the Welsh Government replied: “jang vIDa je due luq. ‘ach ghotvam’e’ QI’yaH-devolved qaS.”
Which translated from Klingon means: “The minister will reply in due course. However this is a non-devolved matter.”
A full answer is expected by July 15.
BBC News says: “It is believed to be the first time the Welsh government has chosen to communicate in Klingon.”
To add insult to injury – or perhaps insult to insult – an Assembly source said: “The only extra-terrestrial life seen near Cardiff recently seems to be Darren Millar.
“Perhaps instead of spending time and wasting Government resources asking questions about UFOs he should be fighting for the very real concerns of his constituents.”
In defense of Millar, a Tory spokesman was quoted as replying: “Darren tabled these questions after being contacted by constituents. It’s nice to see a busy ‘Assembly source’ keeping close tabs of his work.”
UK papers are filled with UFO stories, and taking a look at the daily UFO headlines which we post regularly, it can be seen that most of the mainstream media articles covering UFO stories lately come from the UK.
In fact, according to a Huffington Post article in 2012, a poll of residents in the UK found that “52 percent believe UFO evidence has been covered up because widespread knowledge of their existence would threaten government stability.”
Those people might be very pleased to see a minister taking their beliefs seriously, and, presumably, not very happy to see other ministers calling their inquiries a waste of time.
However, ridiculing the UFO subject is nothing new when it comes to the UK government. Nick Pope, who worked at the UFO desk for the UK Ministry of Defense (MoD) from 1991 to 1994, tweeted this today: “Replying to an assemblyman’s question on UFOs in Klingon is a great way to ridicule the subject. I did similar things at the MoD. Qapla'”
Qapla’ is another Klingon term and means “success.”
In 2011, Pope was interviewed by The Huffington Post’s Lee Speigel about what he called “spin and dirty tricks” that were used to keep the media from taking UFO research seriously.
Pope told Speigel: “To really achieve our policy of downplaying the UFO phenomenon, we would use a combination of ‘spin and dirty tricks.'”
“We used terms like UFO buffs and UFO spotters — terms that mean these people are nut jobs. In other words, we were implying that this is just a very somewhat quaint hobby that people have as opposed to a serious research interest.”
However, Pope says there was a “serious research interest.”
Pope continued, “Every time we got a report from a pilot, we were checking the radar tapes. So it was an interesting sleight of hand. We were telling the public we’re not interested, this is all nonsense, but in reality, we were desperately chasing our tails and following this up in great detail.”
Does this mean the Welsh government is conducting serious research into UFOs? Maybe not. We’ll have to wait and see what they say on July 15. However, by using similar tactics used by the MoD to be dismissive about the topic, it doesn’t seem likely the Welsh government will be taking the issue any more seriously next week.
From Nick Pope: “To clarify my position, I don’t endorse the ridiculing of the subject, but respect the wit of the Welsh Government’s response.”