Funny how the world is totally different.
I went the FAA route, and did the IR first as a PPL, then the Private ME, then the ME CPL then the SE CPL. The only one I ballsed up first time was the SE CPL.......which I found really tough. All those "stupid" VFR manouvres
. In the USA if you do the initial CPL in a ME, you are excempt from the requirement to do the navigation in a SE, and you are also excempt from the requirement to do it in a complex.
The ME test was good fun, a VFR from Long Beach to Vegas with a diversion, and on the way back the examiner told me to "go as fast as I can" as he needed to take a leak...so 160kts across the LA basin, back in time for lunch
Just a thought, to get some "cheap" ME experience, it'd be worth going to the USA for a week or so and flying at $170 per hour before embarking on the UK ME training......