All the mentioned ideas have been suggested many times, when I arrived here I help set up a technical committee. We came up with loads of forward thinking ideas based on our various experiences, then we hit a brick wall called the GCAA!!!! Not interested in changing the system they set up it would appear. Very disheartening. The committee is now disbanded, they only thing we achieved was stopping the pointless instruction of "maintain 3000ft" in clearances. THAT IS BACK NOW, GCAA insisted as I mentioned before.
Unfortunately what you are seeing and hearing in ATC is apathy, which is only going to get worse since the announcement of a whopping 8% pay rise!!!!! No increase in accommodation allowences, and no instructor payment until "the second half of 2006"!!!!
Lots of unhappy people planning their escape. Anyway, feel better now I have had my whinge, get back to the thread!!!