Dr David Clarke, author of The UFO files and senior lecturer in Journalism at Sheffield Hallam University, said the latest papers demonstrate the extent to which official policy towards UFOs changed after the Cold War: 'In 1957, some officials were so concerned by a spate of incidents involving UFOs the subject was placed on the agenda of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC),' Dr Clarke explained. 'But by the 50th anniversary of the "flying saucer" mystery, in 1997, the MoD was no longer interested in UFOs as a defence problem, but as a purely public relations issue. This inevitably led to the closure of the MoD's public UFO hotline at the end of 2009.'
Among hundreds of reports of sightings, 'UFO crashes' and other close encounters, the files reveal details of several unusual incidents which landed on the MoD's 'UFO desk' - Sec(AS)2. These include the unlikely tale of a man from Leeds who believed his 100-1 bet on alien life being discovered on earth before the end of the century was a winner. He approached the government for evidence to support his claim after Ladbrokes refused to pay out. The MoD said they were open-minded about extra-terrestrial life, but had no evidence of its existence.