100%Please
We are not on our own, as you say, although I think your sentiment is spot on.
Go to court, if you have 'done the right thing', and you will win your case, as the law is quite clear.
The difficult bit is the small matter of what happens between making a safety disclosure and winning the court case, which is why most people will keep their mouths shut.
In an ideal world, ones union would make the appropriate legal representations - if necessary, all the way up to parliament. It is fair to comment that they have had the chances to do this and choose not to.
In many cases of common law, at the point a crime is being committed, you can shout "unfair" and something is done at that point. You should not have to wait until you are hung, drawn and quartered before the law is invoked. It seems in aviation, that is what has to happen before you can then invoke the law i.e. when you are potentially sad, alone, without a job, and with rather less funds to fight a legal battle.
What I am suggesting is a system when you have made a safety disclosure, and at the point you are placed on a disciplinary (or otherwise treated unfairly), you can invoke the law at that point.
You can argue this is no different from any of life's unfair situations.
You can also very well argue that so may peoples lives are at potential risk, that to not have such a system is, well, 'criminal' in itself.
We have whistleblowing systems in place - make them damn well work?