Carbide Finger, 11 for 8 may be tight, but having worked it on a regular basis for the last 2 summers I know how it works. At present trainee debriefs do not constitute regulated time, therefore are considered to be part of a break.
jabberwok, the re-sectorisation is happenning. More sectors will be introduced on the West End, and the trials have proven how much more traffic can be shifted. Its not a case of opening them all at the same time, but increasing the combinations the sectors can be run in. This does increase co-ordination in a way, but with a dedicated planner with every sector using the electronic co-ordination will not pose a problem in the sense you talk of. The Hurn sector is being reviewed for a re-sectorisation within the next 3 years, one of the thoughts is to introduce a new sector to channel the RTF accordingly, so that those flights overflying London that get big routings to readback are on one frequency, and the TMA arrivals on another. Early days yet but its looking at sorting the problem you are on about. As for the long term future, Mode S will vastly reduce the need for RTF as eventually datalinking is to be introduced. Although in very early stages I believe that Australian ATC and Maastrict have been doing some trials, so the RTF will only be used for the unusual and requests.