Aliens would be ‘welcome’ in Glasgow, FoI reveals

Published on 11/02/2013 16:51

ALIENS would receive a “warm and peaceful welcome” if they were to visit Glasgow, the city council has said.

• Aliens would be “welcome” in Glasgow, answer to FoI request reveals

• Glasgow City Council say event is “unlikely” but cites readiness to draw upon international protocols

Council leaders would also draw upon internationally established protocol in the event of the arrival of extraterrestrial beings.

The revelations emerged as Glasgow City Council disclosed one of its more unusual Freedom of Information requests.

The query, submitted by an unidentified member of the public, read: “As mankind continues to advance and head out into the stars we are undoubtedly going to attract the attention of whatever lifeforms are out there. I’m curious to know what provisions have been put in place for our inevitable encounter.”

Dr Kenneth Meechan, head of information governance, said that though alien visitors to Glasgow would be “unlikely”, they would want to include Scotland’s largest city as part of their tourism itinerary.

He added that should aliens come to Glasgow, civic leaders would refer to international agreements such as the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 and protocols established by the STEI Committee of the International Academy of Austronautics, based in California.

“We note that Glasgow covers around 0.008% of the world’s population and 0.00003% of the total surface of the earth/0.00012% of the land area,” Meechan said.

He added: “On a purely statistical basis, we therefore consider it unlikely that aliens, should they land on earth in the next five years, will initially land in Glasgow.

“Glasgow is of course a vibrant and exciting city for visitors and has been awarded any number of accolades by national and international travel guides.

“We are sure that any (non-hostile) alien visitors would want to include Glasgow in their list of places to visit, and we can assure them of a warm and peaceful welcome.”