Shropshire Star

New job for Lembit is out of this world

Former MP and I'm a Celebrity contestant Lembit Opik has been named the 'head of parliament' of a self proclaimed utopian society which has aims to become the first space kingdom.

Published
Former MP Lembit Opik has released a manifesto detailing his vision for life beyond Earth

Asgardia, also known as the Space Kingdom of Asgardia, is a proposed and self-proclaimed nation in outer space. It has adopted a constitution and intends to access outer space free of the control of existing nations.

At a ceremony in Vienna, hundreds of people gathered for an inauguration – and former Montgomeryshire MP Lembit Opik was announced as its head of parliament.

Fellow Asgardian MPs voted Mr Opik in after he released a 12-point manifesto which detailed his vision for life beyond Earth.

Mr Opik has worked alongside space experts before, and said: "All through my political career I’ve been involved in what you might call 'space politics.

"When I was the Member of Parliament for Montgomeryshire, I did a lot of work with Spaceguard UK, which is doing its best to prevent us from being incinerated by an asteroid. I led the campaign to get the UK Government to take the threat of Near Earth Objects seriously.

"At the beginning, some folks laughed at the campaign. Then they stopped laughing – following a government sponsored report confirming everything I’d claimed about the threat was true.

"Asgardia originally attracted a similar kind of amused curiosity. I myself had been watching the development of this new space nation and by 2018 it seemed to me Asgardia was coming of age and I signed up to stand as a Member of Parliament."

Since the movement was founded, it has gathered 200,000 people and it is hoped that will rise to 150 million in 10 years.

Those behind Asgardia say it was created with three top goals in mind – to ensure the peaceful use of space, to protect the Earth from space hazards, and to create a demilitarized and free scientific base of knowledge in space.

Asgardia also has a long-term objective of setting up habitable platforms in space and building settlements on the Moon.

A spokesman for the group said: "We believe that the creation of a new legal platform for the exploration of near-Earth and deep space is crucial to keep pace with humanity’s rapid technological and scientific expansion off-planet. Universal space law and astro-politics have to replace the current outdated international space law and geopolitics."

For more information see asgardia.space/en

Mr Opik, who lost his Commons seat in 2010 to Glyn Davies, has appeared on a whole host of TV shows since being voted out, and he also briefly tried his hand at a wrestling career.