This whole debacle is a Human Factors Issue!
Its got so many people wound up / perplexed / uncertain of position / lacking in current information that it is a HF analysists dream.
I'm not applying for CAMO status yet either - why should I when the rules are in place and might / might not change with less than a month to go? This is something the CAA just dont want to grasp! Extending the deadline to January 2009 wont change anything unless and until the rules are finalised and in place.
As for making 5-1-09 the new deadline instead of September 2009 so as to avoid commercial losses to those CAMOs who already made the leap, surely these people did so fully knowing changes to Part M are / may be in the offing? Now we all have to leap before the landing ground is ready,while other EU countries will probably have another year to deal with this - nice level playing field play on.
The real reason must be the CAA cant cope with the workload, and has no system to deal with it. A maintenance company must have sufficient staff for the work it does or it is not in compliance with the rules, gets told off and shut down. Should this not work the other way too?
When it is sorted then I might apply - the NPA made slightly better reading than the original Part M, but I might just get an FAA IA instead and re-register the plane N reg just to get away from this mess.