The examiner made a point forcefully that "convenience" is completely irrelevant to the choice of an alternate.
That said, I fail to see what is wrong with Lydd or Southend or Biggin - or indeed Bournemouth where you have just shot some approaches so you know which way round the NDB hold is
and its weather is going to be exactly the same as Southampton's.
I think the key point here is that a conversion candidate needs to "immerse" himself in the methods specific to the JAA IR test
Clearly so
It would be helpful if they were written down somewhere. Otherwise, the appropriate level of immersion will be hard to achieve.
Anybody who can fly IFR can get 99% of a flight right. It is the last 1% which gets you.