Local schools visit Climate Camp

Scenes you don't usually see in Climate Camp coverage: Local schools visiting the camp. Heathrow Primary School would be one of three schools demolished to make room for the third runway.

Do you get extra airmiles if your flight is diverted?

It looks like a platinum-plated passenger was responsible for the redirection of an LA-London flight to New York earlier today.

Michael Chertoff, director of Homeland Security, was somewhat upbeat about the idea that anyone can whisk past security by clambering onboard an employees-only bus and find themselves on the plane without further ado:

"The good news here is that you have somebody who's alert on the crew and they take appropriate steps at that point to deal with what might be a potentially dangerous situation," Chertoff said. "That's exactly what we are asking people to do: If you see something, say something."

The bad news, of course, is that everyone is spending hours and hours queueing, removing their shoes, having their kidneys x-rayed in a parody of security while there's a bloody great side-door swinging open. It is wonderful that the crew picked up on the anomaly - but if this had been someone intent on doing bad, it would probably have been too late by the time the plane had landed in New York, wouldn't it?

Also: we know they could hardly have said "We're landing because there's a desperado on board" over the intercom, but...

Anthony Loynes, one of the 188 passengers aboard the flight, told CNN the pilot told passengers the plane was stopping at JFK because the plane did not have enough fuel to make it to London.

That's the way to keep the passengers calm: "we somehow managed to set out with just enough fuel to plunge into the Atlantic..."

Review: Melia White House, London

This was a quick jaunt down to London for a romantic treat, and the White House provided a lovely backdrop - I suspect the management are hoping the place is jaw-dropping, and on that basis it falls short, but it's tidy, clean and (mostly) well-staffed, although it was a bit surprising to have to wait five minutes for the four members of reception to finish tapping at their keyboards to be acknowledged. To be fair, they did apologise for keeping us waiting.


The lift service is, frankly, bizarre - you tell the system where you're going through a central control panel, which then assigns you a lift. Once you've entered your floor, that's it - there's no way to punch in a different number once it arrives. I suspect the idea is meant to be efficient, to stop several lifts heading for the same floor at the same time, which might make sense in a skyscraper. In a seven story building, it doesn't work - it's slow, glitchy, and created a knot of confused people stood around trying to work out how to get up and down. In fact, going down for breakfast there were so many people stood hoping for a lift to show up on our floor that we decided to go down the stairs instead. We were already on our cereals before the others made it into the breakfast room.

The room was clean, in good condition (some slight damp coming through from the shower, a bit of ripped wallpaper, but nothing seriously wrong) but the bath is very high, very deep and very narrow - wouldn't recommend it for people who have mobility problems, and not for people who like baths. There's a list of relaxing bath salts available, but how relaxing a bath would be if you had to take it on your side, I'm not sure.

We had to fix our TV - we got no picture - the aerial had come out the back. (I'm aware some TA users mark down on this sort of thing.) And why a one hundred quid a night hotel feels it can get away with providing standard Nescafe in the rooms - a drink that bears only a passing relationship with coffee - I'll never understand.

Although just off Marleybone Road, the double glazing keeps the sound out, but not, unfortunately, the noise of the couple in the next room having sex. That didn't last that long - good for us, slightly disappointing for them, I fear.

Breakfast had a wide selection of foods on the buffet, although the scrambled eggs were so liquid as to count as a drink and the range of jams was limited to a choice of two; they served up until 10.30 which is pretty good by UK standards. (This might be a Saturday only time, though.)

All in all, a great stay, and a great location - bang opposite Great Portland Street tube and walking distance of Regents Park and Euston Station.