Would I be right in saying that in BA the F/O is allowed to make the go/no go decision on his/her take-off? In my company only the captain can make the decision, who guards the thrust levers on every T/O until V1. I'm all for F/O's being allowed to do stuff, but I personally think our policy is better.
The Go/No Go decision is the most critical decision that can be made, and has very grave consequences for geting it wrong. Many, many accidents have been caused by RTO's above V1.
It may be the F/Os decision, but the Captain can still over-rule him/her with a verbal command or taking control, whereas if it is only the Captain's decision, there is less ambiguity and there should be less chance of a mis-understanding. An inexperienced F/O with an over-bearing Captain in particular could be suseptible to following a mis-heard call from the LHS (I'm not saying this happened here, I know nothing about it).
The report on this one could make interesting reading. Bit like the legend of the F/O under training who was told to 'chear up' on the T/O and put the gear up!