Nonradio,
Yes you are quiet correct in that I was just refering to the advantages of the NPPL for (some, many?) existing pilots. This is because this aspect seemed to be being overlooked in discussions of the NPPL, and yet it offers real advantages to some pilots, particularly those flying pfa aircraft where the aircraft restrictions mean that they aren't missing out on much by changing to the NPPL.
I didn't feel well-enough informed to comment on ab-initio training, but surely this is only the first step, with other advantages like an American style single theory exam still in the future. Its early days yet, but I felt sorry that there seemed to be so much grumbling about the NPPL when it seems to be the first official move in the direction of reducing costs that I can recall.
Again, I express my thanks to those who have put so much effort into making this possible.
While not being sufficiently informed to comment on the training hours for the NPPL I can say from experience that many hours of my PPL training were wasted because of poor organisation. I don't think my experience was particularly exceptional.
QNH