Heathrow injunction update: confusion all around

The hearing on BAA's Heathrow injunction began today and, so far, it mostly seems to have involved debate about whom BAA did and didn't intend to injunct.

From PA (snipped for length):

Heathrow operator BAA today denied that it was seeking to prevent five million people from using roads and public transport near the airport.

Launching its High Court bid for an injunction to prevent a major protest at the west London airport, the company said that it was only aimed at "protesters" who were acting unlawfully...

"So, rather than bind millions of people, which Mr Livingstone thought we are trying to bind, we are only trying to bind those people who wish to obstruct or prevent us from lawfully using the airport."...

Martin Chamberlain, counsel for Transport for London and London Underground, told the judge that "until the moment we arrived at court today it was an attempt to bind five million people".

He said: "What Mr Lawson-Cruttenden has said to you is that it has been clear all along that the only people sought to be injuncted are the four named defendants.

"It is quite the reverse. It has been clear all along, until the moment we arrived at court today, that in fact the people sought to be injuncted included all the members of the defendant organisations."

Mr Lawson-Cruttenden replied that it had always been the intention to "injunct against unlawful activities" at Heathrow and he had "never sought to injunct five million law-abiding people"....

Mrs Justice Swift asked Mr Lawson-Cruttenden to clarify exactly what BAA was seeking "because I have to know what I am being asked to do" and other parties "have to understand exactly the case that they have to meet"....

The hearing, which is expected to conclude on Friday, was adjourned until tomorrow.

Confused? I am.

On a lighter note, last night Londoners gathered on the Piccadilly Line, named on the injunction as one of the banned routes into Heathrow, for a "last chance party" to celebrate their right to travel and to protest. There's footage on the BBC website, if you're quick, and photos here (thanks, nmec).

More updates on the hearing as we get them.