Pringle ....
For goodness sake, get a life! If you feel sooooo threatened by the idea that PPL's might once again instruct, then you really are insecure. I'm just a lowly PPL, but I've been flying for the last 25 years and have seen many changes. Hopefully a few of the many to come will be for the better! I was taught by a PPL and to be honest the only crap instructor I ever had was for my IMC. He was an obvious "time filler" CPL, and preferred to "demonstrate" rather than give proper instruction. In the end, feeling very embarrassed I went to the CFI, who changed him for a real instructor ... funnily enough a PPL
I have always said there will be room for the career instructors, teaching ME, IR, CPL ect. Ok, I can see your frustration if PPL's can teach these higher levels, but realistically, what's the chance of that? To teach ME and IR, you would have to at least have the ratings. Most ME/IR rated pilots ARE CPL's, and the few that are not, are at least just as well qualified in those disciplines. I don't think you have to worry about too many ME/IR rated PPL's flooding the market! Most with those qualifications in the PPL catagory are very busy business men who use the ratings to get around Europe and have no time to play at being instructors.
I can also see your point about CPL qualified instructors. If you can become a CPL with 200 hours, why would you do an FIR? Why indeed? In the past, you needed 700 hours to get a CPL, so instructing was a good hours builder. But in that case, why do CPL's now, who want to be airline pilots, bother with FIR? Beat's me? .... but they do! I don't think the rule change will make much difference. It didn't before. All it did was exclude a generation of experience to the newly qualified pilots of the 90's who seem to have missed out on the idea that flying can be a lot more fun than £150 cups of coffee at surrounding airfields. Thank goodness the microlight fraternity popped up! If not all the fun in aviation would have been snuffed out
SS