I quite agree Rod.
I did my GFT in min dual plus 2 hours of the min solo. I then had to wrack up the rest of the solo hours and QXCs before I could send my license application off.
I did it all in 3 months, through the winter.
If you are doing 1 hour a month, 30-40 hours would be about right. If you are doing 2-3 hours a week, it is all so fresh in your mind that you move along very quickly.
The comments about the lack of bolt on rating to NPPL SSEA are correct, but that may well change now that EASA are rolling out a pan EU version of it. It should be live in 2009 and will be accepted across all EU states. One of the main reasons for getting a JAR (as Fly Stim pointed out) is the SSEA is UK only at the moment.
NPPL(M) is accepted almost everywhere in EU land except Ireland.