I'm not a frequent poster on pprune, and must admit i've not read every single word of this thread (more of a scan job) however it seems to me that most of those who object to the MPL are one, or a combination of the following;
a. a begrudger. i.e "well, if i had to do it, why shouldn't everyone else"
b. someone with a vested interested in a CPL/IR flying school, because if the MPL comes in there will be less need for these, and their senecas, Be76's twinstars etc.....they will be largely cut out of the loop with the subsequent financial consequences.....(also the CAA examiners won't have their little opportunity to play "god" on test days....)
c. someone who is fearful and resistive of change, despite the world moving on around them
I struggled to get my CPL and struggled even more to get my IR. (No first times passes on either) but now, several years down the line, flying a 744 (and loving it) i've reflected on the system i went through and come to the following conclusions;
Its a system that has worked thus far, although the basic format has not changed in 50 years. However it is becoming more anacronistic as the licensing tests bear little resemblance to the real world of the airline pilot. I was told to memorize all the comms freqs, route details, app tracks etc for my IR test. You never do that in the real world as you go to different places and things change too! Also told to memorize the checklists...All a recipe for disaster in the real world, you might just forget something vital.
With respect, some of the previous posters seem to think airline pilots are training to become some sort of academic, we are not. We are professionals, but should be trained to do a job of work, no more, no less. We should be respected and earn a decent salary to reflect the skills and responsibility of the job,NOT passing a set of outdated and unnecessary tests......The sims have come a long way over the past 25 years, and i've seen sim engineers who can fly them a lot better than many TRI's....food for thought?
With regards to airmanship, i got my first airline (jet) position with 350 hrs on light aircraft. I did my type course with several who had 1000+ hrs on light aircraft, mainly instructing. They had no more insight/ability etc than I. Hours bashing the (same) circuit, & teaching a PPL (or indeed CPL) syllabus imparts little in the way of useful airmanship for an airline scenario. It was a steep learning curve for all of us, and MPL will be the same, not easier, but different, more relevent.