Why is this taking so long to resolve?
Surely it is in the mining pools interest to fall into line? Or is there something more sinister going on?
Re stress testing I suppose it needs to be done isnt bitcoin still classed as beta or am I missing the point?
It actually was resolved pretty fast. (6 blocks ~ 1h)
I guess the news at the top of the forum, is just a reminder that you should update your client.
Theoretically this could happen again(I highlty doubt it, since pools/miners already lost money) and the only prevention is to use a up-to-date client(or connect to an up-to-date node)
It is clearly not resolved. Look at the forum header and you will see. Things are not "back to normal" if you have to wait for ~30 confirmation on many clients. This is ongoing as of now until the above warning is removed.