"Class E above 700feet agl - good idea"
That doesn't square up with UK's ability to fly in IMC anywhere. With the above proposal, you would need ATC clearance to enter IMC. Where is all this ATC, and who is going to pay their salary?
You can't have it both ways.
It would also catch a lot of planes in en route IFR charges; something else they haven't got in the USA. They also haven't got Europe's vastly and completely intellectually superior (and inaccessible to most pilots) IR.
"I think it is wrong make private VFR aviation more complicated or expensive"
Exactly!
I think the UK airspace system is OK, given the IMC Rating, the ability to fly in IMC in Class G, the ability to fly just about anywhere in Class G. It's easily possible to do serious cross country trips in the UK, at low level (say below 3000ft), mixing VFR and IFR as required.
In comparison, say France, IFR is impossible without an ATC clearance (and requires the full JAA IR which most people will never be able to get) but VFR is freely doable but only at higher levels, FL065-FL105 mostly, and most PPLs don't like going that high, or can't because they'd in the clouds (which needs an IR to penetrate, even though they can fly VMC on top). Below that, you are stuck in masses of prohibited military airspace which takes ages to just look up in the SIA book. It's no wonder that most GA in France is VFR and sticks to very short excursions.
So one can't mix different airspace systems, picking the best of each. I tend to see advocates of "Class E everywhere" are mostly sub-2000kg owners with a JAA IR; a miniscule group numerically but quite vocal online. Whereas 2000kg+ pressurised owners with a full IR tend to "fully appreciate"
the option to go VFR; in France you can do it up to FL195 and your costs go down by about £30/hour.
Beagle:
"Pretend-airliner drivers are welcome to $od off somewhere else."
Now, that isn't exactly an inclusive attitude, is it?????
I can fly a tight enough oval circuit; what p1sses me off if even when I do that, somebody cuts me up on the inside. You call that "airmanship"? And I might be flying a slightly bigger circuit because I am doing the correct thing and following somebody else doing such a circuit. Anyway, I don't want to start another thread on this well worn topic. Just think of a foreign pilot coming to one of these places.