As a postscript to my first post in this thread, T5 on Monday last was crowded but operating well. One or two cancellations on the board, but no sign of the disruption BA warned might occur. I could observe this for 5 hours having got there early! There were plenty of security staff, don't know about handling.
My original thoughts of the uselessness of a warning on the website of "potential disruption" still stand. If the warning has any purpose other than later claiming they warned people so cannot be held responsible if passengers turned up to be told of disruption, it should provide facts and information to allow readers to make an informed assessment of the risk.
On the flight itself, I'm not sure of a bottle of water and small bag of crisps really substitutes for catering. Why bother?
But no worse than a loco. I did have a look at fare prices 4 hours before departure and they were breathtakingly high, eg GBP600 for basic economy, 1-way, for a 2-hour flight.