I have read the AAIB's report with great interest and clearly it raises a considerable number of issues that are of concern. I last flew a commercial flight in 1995 and have never flown an Airbus type other than their simulators in Toulouse, so for both reasons I will not comment here on the rights and wrongs of the conduct of the flight.
However, I am astounded to read in Chris Scott's posts above that BA do not permit pilots to fly using manual thrust during normal operations. In my view, it is essential that pilots should be encouraged to fly the aircraft manually whenever workload and weather conditions permit. A few practice sessions on the simulator is totally inadequate.
I know I am an old fossil but, after reading some of the accounts here on PPRuNe and in official accident reports, I cannot understand how or why BA pilot management have allowed this to happen. Pilots are there, not only to conduct normal flights, but, far more importantly, to act as long stop when things go wrong - including the automatics.