It will be a very sad day if/when bmi pull off the LHR route. It is their longest served route from LHR and everyone has grown up with MME having a link to LHR.
I can remember going there as a kid and watching BMA Viscounts doing the JER flights at weekends and the DC9s on the LHR route.
Does anyone else remember British Midland B737-200s at MME in the late 80s too? There was EI-BTR in full 'BM' colours as well as a white one with 'BM' tail and titles. If anyone has any photos of this other aircraft it'd be great to see them as there seems to be no photos of it anywhere on the net. It may have been leased from TEA.
Moving forward, I think the best replacement for the London link would have to be in the form of VLM with a MME-LCY service with their F50 or better still, BAe 146.