Was this person a passenger or a "dockyard Johnny"?

There were two around 10am last Thursday.

A fellow passenger. He was so full of himself that the Tensa barriers shattered as he walked past.

I hope to God they instate a 'decency' test for pax looking to enrol on to IRIS' successor.

What is the latest time in the day anyone has seen IRIS function? I wonder if they are switched off even before the last scheduled arrival (2305 from Rome) ?

Recurring "when will the iris be shut for good" question this...

Im flying in to T5 from mainland Europe abouts 2 times a month, and for now at least (and my guess is at least past the olympics) the iris barriers at T5 will be kept open...

Both barriers open at my last arrival a couple of weeks ago mid-day.

Cannot see any reason at all why they would switch off the gates late evening, they are fully automated after all....

That could also be the reasonable answer to the question 'why would they ever switch off IRIS, ever?'

However, Theresa May (whose hairdresser I believe is likely to have been born blind) continues to deeply mystify.

About 22:45 was the latest I have personally been through the IRIS barrier recently. I suspect it doesn't have a late-night switch-off time though.

There was a pretty appalling queue when I arrived from Brussels yesterday just after lunch, but fortunately the ePassport gates were open, so I went for those and found only 5 people before me (not counting the DYKWIA who tried to jump the queue but who I, with much pleasure, blocked and shamed into joining the queue at the back :D). Took about 5 minutes for me to get through - it has to be said that the ePassport gates take quite a while to make up their mind about an individual passenger passing through... probably a 1990 processor ;)

What I can't understand is (a) why there are only three of these in light of the surely growing amount of people who will be using them and (b) why they are so often closed altogether :confused:

What was with the sign I saw at T3 about a separate queue for those holding American, Australian, New Zealand or Japanese passports (Canadian as well maybe, can't remember)? Is this new? Only in T3? The beginning of reciprocity for trusted traveler programs?

I was connecting so didn't see what exactly it was. Incidentally, the T3 to T5 bus waiting area was a zoo. Managed to cut about half of the queue by simply taking the lift (had to regardless because of my roll-aboard) because it backed up the stairs.

Upon arrival at T5 there appeared to be an endless queue for connections with no clear Fast Track signage. The first two BAA staffers I asked didn't even know what I was talking about when I asked for it; finally one said "Are you flying business class? to which I responded "No, first actually", at which point he showed me where the FT queue veered off. The regular line went around two corners, but from the time he pointed to the sign down the hall to the time I was entering GF in T5 was under 10min.

Further to this point, came through LHR on Friday and exactly this scenario: long line on the Non-EU line and completely empty (both automated and staffed) on the EU side. EU side had six staff sitting mainly idle, Non-EU had empty desks.

Unless there is some sort of additional training required to do non-EU (and really, how hard can it be?) then why can they not simply take one or two people off the EU side?

When management and staff are fighting each other (which is insane in government, but that's another story), logical business practices lose out.

Is there really a separate queue for them now?

I think it's just a track for the main non-visa nationals rather than anything to do with trusted traveller programmes etc.

That would be a huge and very welcome improvement. I sincerely hope it is installed at T5 for the Games.

It really is madness to see it happening. It's really not hard: every supermarket in the country manages to train sufficient people to use tills so that they can fill as many tills as they need to if queues get huge. Managers too.

This sort of approach normally causes paranoia at the Foreign Office due to all those countries who are excluded causing upsets through their Embassies at being excluded, tit-for-tat retaliations for British entering the slighted countries, complaints about whites-only racial discrimination, threats to boycott British goods as they've been insulted, you name it.