Two moments of reading the thread would have shown you that IAG have already accepted the mediators findings - Omnipresent posted as such this morning - see post 677, it is only a page back. It is now down to the unions to decide whether they want to play ball and accept the mediators judgement or not. So actually I find myself completely in agreement with you when you say
Carrying on will only make matters worse, with the prospect of a more embarrassing climb down later on,
as the only ones "carrying on" at the moment are the unions, and the climb down for them later would be much worse.