Thanks for your reply, SRT. I am however, wary of spending ~£60K (which I would have difficulty raising to start with!) then join the dole queue just over a year latter. On the other hand, ~£20K for a CPL sounds more palatable to me.
I should also stress that I am in no way interested on working for an airline. It is flying small turboprops like Twin Otters or Caravans that appeals to me rather than big jets. As for the type of jobs, I do actually find the idea of bush-flying or island-hopping exciting, and my ambition would be to pilot an air ambulance. In a previous life I was a basic EMT and I'm starting to retrain to paramedic level.
The question now is, would I be realistically able to get a job just on a CPL and minimum hours? Obviously, I wouldn't sneer at
any paying job which involves flying. I would even be willing to pilot a skydiving plane, even though I normally wouldn't stay on it for the landing
btw, I'm having difficulty discerning whether the ballpark figure of £20K for a JAR-CPL (in the UK or elsewhere) includes an IR and multi-engine rating. If not, how much extra would that set me back?
Thanks for your feedback.