Thanks for your response - you are probably right, that I should streamline the issues and stick with b., as you've suggested. But I don't completely agree. Here are the reasons:
a. they refused to offer me any alternative, or let me fly, and just took our names off the computer, offloaded our bags without telling us (which I saw on the screen by looking over their shoulders), and just walked away. So they do have to account for their behaviour.
b. they were negligent in not notifying us at check-in when they scanned the passports, which would have allowed us to make alternatives, and
c. your point about the security of bags is wrong because i. the bomb was discovered prior to departure, ii. all the bags had passed through security and iii. we all intended to fly, rather than jump ship as in the case of the El Al bomber.
d. my daughter flew with us the following day on the same passport with EL AL (who could be more security obsessed than Israel's national carrier?), who found it difficult to comprehend the BA staff's callous behaviour towards a young family.
The terminal 5 police were there actually till the end, long after the BA crew had left the building, advising me to go to a hotel and to a 24 hour TESCO (!) to get food for the children. It was midnight. I didn't find them at all sympathetic, in fact they were having a laugh with the BA staff - the CCTV footage would prove that. Also, if my emotions were too offensive, I would have been cautioned or arrested, none of these happened. The police just came and said they couldn't overrule the BA's decision.
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