Sad thread this. I flew a lot between London and Scotland in the late nineties on BM when I was still in the military. Good product, smilling staff, and punctual. Sadly the cost went up and we found it cheaper to go with BA and you got a hot meal on the Glasgow shuttle as BMi went to a rather cheap looking sandwhich.....
Well I have a plan....
My CPL and IR should be done in about 3-4 months (in between a mass BMi exodus...??). Get job with BMi, work had for a couple of years and take the s&*t but get up to a couple of thousands hours. BMi then either goes bust or is sold out. Leave and go to Ryanair or Easyjet, command a year or so after perhaps. Cynical maybe?
Having read Barbara Cassani's book recently, I think it is very unlikely that anyone will buy BMi. Airline mergers have a habit of causing all sorts of problems, which is probably well recognised by BA and Virgin.
If someone does buy BMi it will be for one thing - slots, just like the Ryanair / Buzz take over. Mass redundancies as BMi will follow and as suggested above a handful of aircraft will be kept to feed into the routes of the buyer.