To answer your other question Doug.
Nothing in the world will make sure you get a free stand when you arrive at LHR, not even a medical emergency pan call. It's too congested and us ATCO's never get the big picture of stand allocation that may allow us to be more efficient in our choices when it comes to holding inbound aircraft on the ground, especially with all the ridiculous work in progress at the moment.
While I'm on this, to any european flight crews out there,
ATC at Heathrow do not and are not responsible for stand allocation, also
If the stand guidance isn't turned on don't ask us to do it, we can't. For obvious health and safety reasons this is done on the stand by the dispatcher. It amazes me how many times crews ask us to do this.
Rant over but hopefully you'll appreciate a bit of where the ground controller is coming from!!