nhl
From your second post:
They [BA] are basically a civil service type operation with practices dating back to the 1960s
Maybe the government will bail them out, or maybe it will be politically advantageous to allow them to fold in an attempt to demonstrate the folly of privatisation
I think you've got yourself a bit confused here. How can you complain about BA's civil service style operation in one breath and then talk about the folly of privatisation in another? Nationalised industries, by definition, are a part of the civil service!