Talk:Nick Pope (journalist)

Biography: SEO Grade
The biography says that the civilian grade SEO (Senior Executive Officer) is equivalent to Lieutenant-Colonel. This is nonsense. The grade SEO is at most equivalent to a Sergeant in the armed forces, if that. More likely a senior corporal/warrant officer. No way on earth is an SEO equivalent to a Lt.Col in the army - an officer commanding hundreds of others in combat! An SEO would never, ever, have more than a small roomful of people under his "command" and usually he would only directly command 3 or 4! ~ ~ Paul Murphy (ex civil-servant!) ~ ~ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.40.178.158 (talk • contribs)


 * If you find something wrong in any Wikipedia article please don't hesitate to correct it. Just hit the edit tab.--Shantavira 19:29, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

h MOD Manual 9 (I think) gives equivalent grades for civilians and military staff, based, I think, on messing arrangements, not the number of people one might manage or command. There is an equivalence, and SEO (now C1) is roughly equivalent to Lt. Colonel, Commander RN and Wing Commander RAF. B2 is Colonel, B1 Brigadier etc. Jas 00:35, 21 September 2007 (UTC)


 * When was he ever an SEO? He was only AO or AA grade in the mid 90s. Would never have been in charge of anything other than the biscuit tin, and certainly not cleared to see anything fun. There is now a tradition of calling out "Admin Girl" whenever he appears on the telly...

Fair use rationale for Image:OperationThunderChild.jpg
Image:OperationThunderChild.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

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BetacommandBot 23:36, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Evidence?
Is there any evidence for Pope's assertions? Everything I've heard him say has been unsubstantiated. I suggest that any evidence be brought forward otherwise there's a risk he might be seen as just another conspiracy theorist. Jas 00:39, 21 September 2007 (UTC)


 * The guy was (or still is) a MI-5 and/or a MI-6 operative who was assigned "The UFO Desk" while he was in the MoD. What he found there should scare the shit out people, especially those who believe everything from that there are no UFOs,etc. to Aliens are friendly. The former are incorrect and for the latter, not all aliens are friendly. 65.163.112.214 03:47, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

The article claims that he worked for the MOD. I understand this is true. If this is true, then he was not an operative in MI5 (now called BSS) or MI6 (properly SIS), as BBS is owned by the Home Office and SIS by the Foreign Office.MOD employees are sometimes seconded and if this was the case, then this should be stated. Many people work for the MOD and they cannot discuss their work - but this does not mean they are "operatives" or are involved in some sneaky conspiracy. If there is some EVIDENCE, then bring this forward. The claims in the article are unsubstantiated and appear to be fanciful conjecture. Next, we will hear that the Tooth Fairy has invaded Slough, but there's no evidence this is true because it's been covered up, this lack of evidence proving the truth of said Tooth Fairy assertion.Jas (talk) 09:25, 25 January 2008 (UTC)


 * As well, Pope's evidence would be extensively listed in his books, check the "Written Works" section for those references. Listing evidence for or against the UFO phenomenon, as presented by Pope or otherwise, is not part of the scope of this article, as this article is about Nick Pope and not about UFOs. Kt&#39;Hyla (talk) 01:19, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

While recording the Sahara dust going over PR, from the town of Fajardo. There was an image of an UFO. Jocruz60 (talk) 16:19, 22 June 2020 (UTC)

Citations & References
See Footnotes for an explanation of how to generate footnotes using the  tags Nhl4hamilton (talk) 08:02, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

multiple issues
I saw this was up for deletion a few days ago and was speedy kept - which looks fair enough as he does appear to be notable, but the article is in a state of disarray, needs many references and from reliable sources - the 'book reviews' all seem to be from http://changingthetimes.alternatehistory.com/book_reviews.htm, which I'm not sure is anything more than a personal website dedicated to reviewing 'alternate history' (shorely alternative history? or just every other history?). I understand ufology is quite a specialist subject, but this article needs a lot of improvement... Richard Hock (talk) 14:26, 5 January 2009 (UTC)
 * That section seems to be rather hastily pasted in from other artilces.  Maybe we should look at adding short summaries to the books, but these seem jammed in, so I'm going to remove them for now.  Artw (talk) 16:16, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

overhaul
I've attempted a complete rewrite of this entry to correct multiple issues, most of which have been pointed out above. The new version is more concise, gives less emphasis to Pope's books, removes obscure/irrelevant material and gives less weight to internet-only sources and more to material from sites like the BBC. I'm also about to include a photograph, as there's a note on Pope's website that states "All material on this website may be freely used for non-commercial purposes. No prior permission is necessary". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.44.231.97 (talk) 08:32, 24 April 2011 (UTC)

I also changed the name to Nick Pope. Accuracy and consistency - Pope has never referred to himself in writing or in any of his media interviews as Nicholas. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.152.59.55 (talk) 18:30, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

Updating
This page appears to be in need of updating. I'll see what I can do with it. Perhaps I can even find a suitable image to add. If anyone has information or concerns, please post them here and I'll take them on board.Valis55 (talk) 04:03, 5 July 2013 (UTC)

Ref Updating. In 2011 Mr Pope married an American Lady and moved to live in the U.S.A. and now divides his time between his homes in California and Arizona.Johnwrd (talk) 18:58, 6 July 2013 (UTC)

Not UFO Desk Officer
The MOD did not have a "UFO Desk Officer". The MOD simply stopped investigating UFO's - that was not because Pope resigned three years earlier, despite the misleading statement that "He resigned in 2006 and in 2009 MoD announced that UFO sightings would no longer be investigated".125.237.105.102 (talk) 09:49, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

Yes, Pope's MoD career lasted from 1985 to 2006 - when he resigned. His time on the UFO project/UFO desk (or whatever terminology people want to use) was 1991 to 1994. So as the above comment correctly illustrates, Pope's resignation was not connected to the MoD's later (2009) decision to discontinue investigating UFO sightings. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.196.165.29 (talk) 07:03, 3 December 2014 (UTC)
 * I agree with both comments (there was no UFO Desk Officer and there is no evidence his resignation was connected to the MoD's decision to discontinue investigating UFO sightings). Note: I think both claims are on Pope's web site or in an article he wrote for the blog page of a newspaper but as I said in another comment those aren't reliable sources and I am updating the article to reflect this. --MadScientistX11 (talk) 03:42, 14 November 2019 (UTC)

employee at the British Government's Ministry of Defence (MoD) from 1985 to 2006
Is there any viable source confirming the times from 1985 to 1993 and 1995 to 2006 ? Refernce 2 is only confirming that he worked there from 91 to 94. --91.119.176.108 (talk) 10:46, 16 February 2016 (UTC)
 * I agree. The only references I could find for the extended dates were Mr. Pope's own web site and an article he wrote for the blog page of a newspaper. While a standard newspaper article would be considered a reliable source even if it were authored by the person the blog pages for papers don't have the same kind of fact checking that the actual publications do. So while I tend to believe that what Mr. Pope said is probably true, at this point I don't think there is a reliable source to back it up so I changed the article to reflect this. --MadScientistX11 (talk) 03:38, 14 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Link 4 is to an interview with Nick Pope in Defence News which is on the National Archives site. The interview was published in 2006 and in it he says, "It was among the most fascinating of my postings in 20 years in the Department." Assuming that we are counting back from 2006 that would mean that he began his career there in 1986 or before. This would be consistent with him stating work there straight from school. 194.37.98.182 (talk) 23:03, 9 October 2020 (UTC)

Changing opening sentence to be consistent with reference
The current version of the article begins with the sentence: "Nick Pope (born 19 September 1965) is a freelance British journalist and media commentator. He was an employee at the British Government's Ministry of Defence (MoD) from 1985 to 2006 and is best known for a role he undertook for the British Government from 1991 to 1994 which involved investigating reports of UFO sightings to determine their defence significance.[1]" This makes it sound as if Mr. Pope's sole responsibility was to investigate UFOs. However, if you look at the reference what it says in relation to Mr. Pope is: " From 1991 to 1994 Mr. Pope worked as a civil servant within Secretariat (air staff). He undertook a wide range of secretariat tasks relating to central policy, political and parliamentary aspects of non-operational RAF activity. Part of his duties related to the investigation of unidentified aerial phenomena reported to the Department to see if they had any defense significance." I'm going to make a minor change to make the sentence consistent with the reference, making it clear that UFOs were only part of his responsibility. --MadScientistX11 (talk) 02:59, 13 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Also, I'm going to change the dates. The current sentence claims he worked from 1985 to 2006 however the reference used to support this claim doesn't say this, it says he worked for the MOD from 1991 to 1994. Also, I checked two other references: Reference 7 an article in The Telegraph and reference 9 an article in The Evening Standard and both of them also contain the dates 1991 to 1994. I'm also updating the rest of the article to be consistent. None of the references that I checked had any dates except for 1991 to 1994 except for Mr. Pope's own self published web site which is not a reliable source. If someone wants to revert to the more expansive dates they need to provide a reference other than Mr. Pope's web site. The same for the claim in the Media Work section that Pope resigned in 2006. That claim is not supported by the reference which is reference number 7, an article in the Evening Standard. --MadScientistX11 (talk) 03:18, 13 November 2019 (UTC)

Removing General Cleanup Tag
There is a tag on this article indicating it needs cleanup. It's not clear specifically what the tag was referring to but as I looked through the talk page I identified a few minor issues where the claims didn't quite seem to match what was described in the sources. I've edited the article to make it consistent with the references. I'm going to remove the tag now that I've made those changes. If anyone adds a tag back please either use a more specific tag or document on the talk page what specific issues you think remain with this article. Thanks. --MadScientistX11 (talk) 03:53, 14 November 2019 (UTC)

Lede: order of titles
Considering Mr. Pope seems to be more of a commentator than a journalist, and therefore it would be more correct to update the order of the job titles to read as follows: Nick Pope (born 19 September 1965) is a media commentator, freelance British journalist, and former civil servant. WP:UNDUE Prominence of Placement Writethisway (talk) 00:01, 28 January 2022 (UTC)

Ufo
Contact me regarding close siting 21st Dec 2021 7 people I know witnessed. Telepathic. CMcLean 55 Roxburgh Street Kelso 51.6.0.145 (talk) 16:02, 3 August 2022 (UTC)

re . to the Pope. Dopea man on defence pal,s and princess k ta!      James michael Whitrow.
Sir! I like you. You make sence on the telly and it helps my headache. big mars attaked and the comptomater of adeana henson sais dont grow old James and i will never be rich! But father JOHN OF baptised with a pressie for my crown bollaks by jove its beefe we eat ta.QUEEN LOVES winnie and fred and chun they chukkle with winn and she a good aunt but auntie flow from the john said the wealthiest manalive is with all his freinds and family, anyway linda aqnd john can rest now thanks to eye and my good self oh and me! Have you met my half brother michael henson his middle names michael. kind regards juxtaposedrose@hotmail.co.uk 194.74.71.132 (talk) 14:00, 7 March 2023 (UTC)

Please email think have evidence Vilgax82 (talk) 04:16, 10 June 2023 (UTC)