The business of allowing Easyjet (one of the speakers there) ops in Class G is obviously controversial. If you give some place (Southend is an obvious candidate) Class D then you have to fund enough ATC staffing to support crossing clearances for GA on a nice summer day, which is not going to happen (see Solent on a nice day - radio contact is impossible).
Why go from one extreme (G) to another extreme (D)? There are many ways in between. You can implement it like e.g. Germany does: make G only the bottom end where no radio contact is possible and then everything up to a certain level E. Bigger airports get their CTR/C/D airspaces and smaller ones only get a control zone and a bigger transponder mandatory zone (TMZ) around it. VFR traffic can fly without permission or radio contact but needs to operate a transponder. Easyjet has added safety during their short travel in E (until they reach C at FL100) and GA is not impacted at all.
A good example is EDNY (Friedrichshafen) which does have scheduled airliners (e.g. from London) and is a very busy GA area. Münster Osnabrück EDDG will lose its airspace C/D soon and get a TMZ as well and of course there are the usual safety protests from Lufthansa and the like but it's been decided and it works.
as the owner of a TCAS equipped aircraft, I have less sympathy with the "anti transponder" view.
Peter, don't show off -- you only have a cheapo TAS and no TCAS 
You can implement it like e.g. Germany does: make G only the bottom end where no radio contact is possible and then everything up to a certain level E.
Only possible with nationalised ATC.
Class E requires ATC, for issuing IFR clearances. An H24 ATC desk (radar qualified ATCO pay grade) is c. €1M/year, including overheads. The UK will never do Class E for this reason alone - it will never pay for services to GA, beyond the ICAO minimum (FIS) and the oddball unit (LARS) to help keep a lid on CAS busts.
don't show off -- you only have a cheapo TAS and no TCAS
It shows up an awful lot of stuff you didn't know was there. 90-100% of the traffic is never seen.
Only possible with nationalised ATC.
Are you sure? NATS is still part public.
GA pays navigational services charges (a.k.a. approach fees), and also en-route charges if you're over 2T.
LARS funding comes from taxation.
Is that not good enough?
Maybe one day Eurocontrol will take over all ATC and EASA will design all airspaces in Europe. One area of Euro-centralization where the UK could win a lot...
I have less sympathy with the "anti transponder" view. I think the Mode S war was badly managed by the CAA; had they mandated Mode C, one would have got all the advantages of TCAS "protection" and visibility to ATC
The problem is being forced to carry a transponder that benefits no one but commercial traffic and the very wealthy who can afford TCAS in their personal aircraft (when there are far more cost effective solutions) - and the utter lack of any concession, such as perhaps reclassifying airways as class B and allowing transponder equipped VFR traffic to at least cross them.
For the record I do have Mode C installed and turn it on always before taking off, regardless of if I'm doing a bimble around the north of the island or if I'm going to be flying through CAS. (I have heard that quite a few UK pilots who have transponders fitted for some reason elect not to turn them on in case they bust airspace, to which I say try to fly more accurately if that's your worry).
For many owners, if they did have to install mode-S this would mean the deferral of maintenance and/or other worthwhile upgrades that have a greater improvement in safety or ease of operation - basically just to benefit commercial traffic. The CAA seems to operate on the assumption that aircraft owners have infinite money supplies. Many of us don't have anything near that, in fact many of us have to make significant sacrifices just to fly a modest plane regularly and keep it maintained to a decent standard.
I see the USA is mandating ADS-B for 2020 - great news for the owner of the known universe (Garmin).
The FAA has a plan to add ADS-B-Out (only) as a requirement for traffic that is currently required to have Mode C. That means operations within the 35 existing Class B Terminal Area Mode C veils (unless the aircraft is non-electrical), Class C airspace airports, and IFR. Implementation of ADS-B-Out can be by Mode S (which remains not-required for almost everybody under 18,000 ft) or UAT (Universal Access Transceiver), which as I understand it will not require Mode S. I have no interest or intent to install Mode S and I'm looking to UAT as the likely solution as it gets developed and priced to market.
Wait until the pilot population figures out that FAA would perhaps like them to broadcast their identity when they are squawking VFR and not talking to ATC... then listen for the explosion. :-) I think the eventual 2020 ADS-B mandate will have to be that the N-number is not mandatorily broadcast when squawking VFR. If ATC wants discrete identification, they will have issue you a discrete code and you will have to accept it, as is currently the case.
