Ultimately it's the investors that matter as they are ones who own the company. Even when BA was getting bad publicity in the UK, the investors remained strongly behind Walsh and his plan to drag certain parts of BA into the modern age. As long as he delivers the savings the investors will continue to back him. In managing a difficult situation SEPLAs reps appear to have allowed themselves to indulge in a few flights of fantasy, namely attacking BA and publishing lies about them. Lets hope that error doesn't come back to haunt them.