Hi Guys,
Welcome to Troubleshooting and Life choices Season 1 episode 13 and a quarter,
So quickly recapping where we were up to;
Fuel Pump not starting
No Spark
Dodgy ignition switch... effectively creating a 260Kg BMW branded paper weight..... and so we move forward....
Ignition switch , as per above, I decided to re-create the ignition switch with a DP-DT (Dual pole, Dual Throw) switch, so effectively the key now only controls the steering lock and nothing else.
I wired up the incoming 12V to both input sides and separated out the Green outgoing 12V signal on one output and the Violet, Gray & Gray/Blue on the other Output.
and it works!

but still the same, no fuel pump and no spark.
Visually checked all of the fuses again and they still all looked fine, the tell-tale wire on the back of the fuses was intact, so logically they were good, but rather than trusting the visual evidence, and since they are all 15A fuses, I swapped out the accessories fuses for the Fuel pump and Engine Management fuses and low and behold.... I have Fuel pump starting and Spark ...
So basically, I am back to where I started ......
Some observations though - The spark on the rear coil outputs is significantly less than the front. The front coils will generate a spark that leaps out to the nearest earth (around 15mm or 3/4 inch), the rear coils will only generate a spark when the plug lead is held near them, a distance of about 3-4mm (less than quarter inch)..... so they are working, but not well
Next test will be unplugging all of the injectors and then plugging in one by one and test squirts on cranking.... (Have previously tested the ground signal from all of the plugs back to the ecu pin 27)
I will also do the light test on the injectors