Before trying some "Save the IMCR" campaign, it would be useful to look at the IMCR from the perspective of people in other European Authorities and other pilot groups such as pilot unions.
All the above have safety high on their agenda.
Now from the outside, the IMC Rating.......
10 or 15 Hours Training often by pilots who don't homd more than an IMC themselves.
Training almost totally completed at a single aerodrome with very limited enroute training.
The CAA who are the authority who issue the rating segregate IMCR holders from the commercial enroute traffic system and from the more heavily used airspace areas in the UK.
Three of the privileges of the IMCR - able to fly out of sight of the surface on a VFR flight, teh removal of the 3Km lower visibility limit when VMC is defined as a visibility less than 3Km eg 1500m in class G below 3000ft and the removal of the 10Km restriction on SVFR flights are not applied under ICAO or elsewhere in JAR-FCL. So the only issue if the ability to fly IFR in IMC and fly instrument approaches at aerodromes and depart IFR etc etc where under ICAO an IR is required.
The UK CAA reminds IMCR holders that it is not designed for prolonged flight in IMC and in many CAA documents it is a "get you out of trouble (without having to tell the CAA you got into trouble) rating".
Do I as a commercial pilot want to be in the hold and be delayed by a pilot who can not be put in the hold above me but get's put ahead of everyone because they can not hold as it is in class A, B or C airspace?
Do I as a commercial pilot want to be in a hold with an IMCR pilot in an adjacent hold who has not been tested on their ability to complete a hold safely?
Do you as a member of the public want to trust your nice Grandmother's life to a pilot with only 15 hours training of which only a percentage was in IMC or even simulated IMC and not had their proficiency checked for over 2 years when the European basic standard is 50 odd hours with annual proficiency check?
Do you want pilots who do not know their limits regarding minima for approaches?
Finally.......do you want the class F and G airspace of your country occupied by flights claiming to be VFR but for a large part of the time are IFR?
The Le Touquet bad weather situation described earlier does not go unnoticed.
From the above you can see that even sections of the UK aviation establishment put out information that makes the IMCR undesirable for many countries.
Thus with the option for a single European Licence to either give everyone the rating or no-one the rating.....the majority view is prbably that there should be no such rating and UK pilots need to remember that they are a small part of the total European pilot pool and as such will need much support from outside the UK to succeed
That is Democracy for you.
Regards,
DFC
PS Removing the IMCR can not infringe your rights since it was not in accordance with international standards or European ones in the first place.
The only case would be for you paying a lot of money for a new rating without being informed of the probable limited validity it will have and that would not be a human rights issue either.