Well it's certainly a step in the right direction; I'm glad but unsurprised to see that Cliff Whittaker was along for CAA - I've had a lot of dealings with him over the years and he has been unwaveringly pragmatic, supportive and sensible in his dealings with all light aviation issues, without ever once doing anything that caused significant problems later for CAA either.
I'm going to make educated guess here as to how it'll work out:
(1) Grandfather rights for existing UK IMC holders from 2012.
(2) Creation of a simplified SEP IR under EASA from about 2013, which looks just different enough from IMC that face is saved in Brussels.
(3) Some deal to allow UK IMC holders transfer to SEP IR privileges will start to appear about 2014.
(4) From around 2016 the UK IMC will slowly disappear into the history books as the EASA SEP IR starts to become workable across Europe and
Well, we'll see anyhow.
G