Quite right Turbine70 - In the UK there is thankfully no such thing as a 'national carrier'. Nor should there ever be; the concept is about as anachronistic as Dads Army.
BA in my view is a Spanish airline run by an Irishman with a rather jaundiced view of his home market - hence the OneWorld Dublin push.
I owe no loyalty to BA simply because it uses the word 'British' in its name. It doesn't need to have any 'loyalty' to Manchester or me as an airline user either - it's a commercial business and should be run as such. I rarely use BA but when I do it is a variable quality airline - sometimes very good sometimes not good - like many airlines including the Easyjets of this world.