SXB, as far as laptops are concerned its not always so much the loss of the physical device or even the consequental loss of use (both of which can often be overcome, although not always easily with appropriate resources). It is often the risk of loss of commercial or confidential data on laptops and in physical documents with which people have to travel, and the "inbuilt" access laptops often have to other systems, that is a challenge. No insurance will deal with those things. The company I work for isn't doing any UK domestic air travel anymore, and some folks next week are doing Eurostar/Air France to get to the USA - that's BA/BDs loss and as indicated here its not an isolated case. These rules WILL f**k up the UK airline industry very quickly.
Andy