You are quite right Mickey. You also had to hold an IMC rating (or IR) to become a Flying instructor and thereafter maintain it. It was common practice for Flying Instructors to climb through IMC to teach in clear air on top. Here in France its rare to find a Flight Instructor who has flown in cloud, ever. The instrument flying assessment during the CPL test was pretty much as now, by the way.
For many the history of the present is a mystery so here is a short overview for those who may find it useful.
On the UK joining the newly formed JAA (1999) it was possible to hold both a UK and a JAA licence in parallel. The main stimulus for the JAA was that there would be one standard for its members. Mutually recognised licenses, ratings and type approvals between members. This was particularly valuable for the airlines. Once EASA was borne it all began to change. EASA demanded that there was to be one recognised licence held by a member state person annotated with "EASA" and to be fully recognised in the EU. For a short time a ludicrous situation existed: we had a UK international licence not recognised by the EU but recognised elsewhere throughout the world. The JAA licences* were issued for 5 years and so on renewal were easily morphed into EASA licenses without choice. Some changes that came with JAR/EASA were unpopular. The UK PPL had been issued for life and many refused to give it up. In a twist the EU had to continue to recognise the UK PPL licences for "overflight" subject to the ICAO rules. So, beyond all reason, the UK CAA resolved this embarrassing problem by demoting the UK PPL to being a national licence only although it was compliant with ICAO. The UK PPL continued with all the same privileges but only for flight within UK airspace. Job done, if you wanted to fly internationally then you had to obtain an EASA licence. A sweetener to the UK PPL was to find a way to recognise the IMC rating and to include it in the EASA licence. In a perferse move they found a way around this problem by calling the IMC rating an "IR(restricted)" but only for annotating the privilege within the EASA licence. The IMC rating is not recognised by EASA and the IR(restricted) doesn't actually exist.
* The JAR rules caused problems for many as the CAA's ability to provide discretion, particularly against medical standards, had been lost. The CAA were under pressure. The answer was the NPPL (with its artificial differences designed mainly to persuade the Dept. of Transport) and with it the "Medical Declaration" that was to be countersigned by your personal GP.
The complication of so many licences we have now is unnecessary. All of this can return to being simple: PPL, CPL, ATPL and an NPPL (sub ICAO). The BGA should be left alone because they are more than capable of running their own affairs, as they always have done.
The main problem to resolve is the LAPL it being a wholly EASA licence and issued for life. The UK for its own purposes doesn't need it. Who will oversee it?
Last edited by Fl1ingfrog; 12th Oct 2020 at 23:48.