Red Chilli
>>>>I find it a little unnerving that I could be flying the correct quadrantal level under IFR in IMC minding my own business and get hit by some gliding bod spiralling up in the cloud in a completely indiscriminate fashion simply because he feels like it<<<
and I find it unnerving when flying VFR along a line feature keeping to the rules of the air, but some twit flying a GPS route comes head on at me because he says to himself that he is navigating en-route by following the moving map.
If you are under IFR in IMC you are quite likely to be in receipt of a service who will let you know of even small traffic in your vicinity. It happens to me when on a FIS in VFR conditions.
As an ex-glider pilot, I still hold to the view that no-one has absolute priority. After all the ATCO will be the only one at the Board of Enquiry.