I was speaking socially to a TRI/TRE who works for a large European airline recently and he said as far as he can see the MPL is a total no brainer and will be dead in the water quite soon.

They are not God, and can be just as ignorant as the rest of us.
I suspect that the MPL will be the standard in a few years time.

I have stated it before, but here I go again. The singel biggest problem with holding a MPL licence and applying for a job is getting even considered for that particular job. And if you get considered, then there is the problem with the airline AOC, SOP, OM, union (and so on) documenation stating that you need a CPL or ATPL to fly for the airline. Today, most airlines will not take the time to change the documents to accomodate one ot two pilots out of many. With a CPL on the other hand....

FOs will only have an MPL for 2-3 years. When they get to 1500 hours, they will get an ATPL. Since an airline will have pre-selected them and given them a job and bonded them for 3-5 years, the only ones who will need to worry about employability for their second job are those made redundant before they get 1500 hours. These will have a type rating and they will be able to do 3-6 months of modular training to earn a single pilot ME/CPL/IR. I wouldn't write them off as dead in the water. An FO with an fATPL who is made redundant is little better off, though he has a shot in to DEP schemes if he got past 500 on type.

In the case of TBAA they have a lot more to worry about though, since it's not a 3-5 year bond:

I would agree with that if you want to get rid of the ATP with all it's advantages. But the purpose should be to implement the MPL gradually and make full use of all advantages.