Well said Paxboy the UK PLC is littered with a long list of poor performance by various management groups. I am not so sure about the asset stripping either, 8 LHR slots from Manx amounts to very little. It has been said before but in the last two years one of the greatest banana skins for us all has been the rise of the low cost whether internal UK / Europe. Whatever' you cannot compete with 737's by using EMB145's and RJ's on many of the key regional routes and whoever you wish to blame key decisions needed to have been made and planned over two years ago not two months ago.
The usual carrot '10% cost saving cutbacks etc' will make little difference sadly and unless the industry turns around within the next 6 - 8 months there will be a lot more blood letting.
I hope we all live through it. BAA have said today that pax numbers in the SE will double by 2010, optimist if nothing else.