I do feel sorry for you brits and americans.
In my country the commander is still the one who has the final word.
aguadalte, you have it in one here! The lunatics are now running the asylums in the UK hiding behind banal and draconian edicts allegedly to protect it's poor citizens from "terrorism" whereas the biggest threat is people blindingly following a set of arbitrary "rules" without really thinking "does this make sense?" (Remember a certain regime years ago where when people were asked "why?" they replied "ve were just following orders".)
Alas, I fear it has gone too far now and, pending a full blown revolution, things will continue to deteriorate since the majority of the herd have lost all ability to be capable of original thought.
Ok it may have been imprudent for the Commander to make the comments on the PA but in the great scheme of things I don't see his actions as a big issue. I'd rather have someone up the sharp end who is capable of objective thought rather than some automaton who accepts everything at face value.
Seems crazy that I can't take my son on the flightdeck but someone who has been with the company for a couple of weeks can do so after superficial security checks!