I know of 1 Red Arrows Pilot, 1 767 Captain, 2 767 FO's, 1 1011 Captain, 1 747.200 FO, 2 737 Captains and 4 737 FO's that joined under the supposed ban.....this is in comparison to the Cessna/Beechcraft/ and Embraher pilots who filled the majority of the recruitment ranks as 2nd officers in previous years.
Scraping the bottom of the barrel.......well certainly doesn't look that way on the face of it so I decided to have a chat to a couple of the sim instructors and they report that the amount of sim time required to complete the curriculum was on average below what has been required on previous intakes.
Combine this with the current concern re the lack of experience of our senior FO's and it begs the question who is spinning a web of deceit.