Surely you did not buy into that? 99% of people saw it for exactly what it was.......free publicity, pure and simple. O'Leary is so well known for coming up with some outlandish, outrageous ideas that never, ever get implemented but when interviewed about it he controls the interview to bang on about low fares / more routes blah, blah. Branson is another master at it too, he uses the opposite and promises some wonderful enhancements BS that never, ever come to fruition. Don't fall for it!
BA isn't the UK's "national flag carrier", they are a privately owned company that like it or not, exist to serve their shareholders as the #1 priority. Now I will agree that BA take this too far because most companies realise that if you please your customers by positive differentiation, you should be improving your margin and hence your bottom line. One area BA fail to realise is if you have a happy, motivated staff this can seriously influence the customer experience too. But they are not a flag carrier, there is no requirement to project any "UK centric" image, in fact I think BA try and do the opposite to show they are a company truly with global reach.
Well they may not be the Flag carrier but they certainly live up to the model. Just look at the tail. And the advertising, the whole ambience given through their internet site is one of "Englishness" if I can use that word. Cream tea anyone? I know and understand what you're saying is absolutely correct here but the vision they try to project is as much "UK" as AF is "France".