Taking the temperature of the response of yesterday's announcement, from a public perspective it seems to have been greeted with a collective yawn rather than panic over disrupted trips.
Part of me wonders whether TW knows full well that this ballot will not work. He is caught between the company and the branches clamouring for another strike ballot. He has delayed in order to prevent a strike at Christmas. If the mandate for a strike isn't sufficiently strong the membership can be blamed. If the company threatens to sue, he can blame BA and bleat about justice etc.