Actuallly I have no problems with people using umbrellas, and have said before that if you are IR35 caught (and we won't go in to the debate that most of us aren't) they are as good a way of doing things as any other. What does irk slightly is people who use Umbrellas and then complain they don't get the same freedoms as people who don't.
As for the
AWD and Umbrella companies, I don't actually see much of an issue. If the umbrella is already picking up the usual responsibilities of an employer, which the good ones are, the
AWD probably won't make much practical difference in real terms other than imposing a bit more of an overhead. The problem will be ensuring freelancers who don't need the protection being caught up in the same safety blanket as agency workers and other casual staff, who do.
Incidentally an EU directive is issued as a broad objective, not as an absolute rule. It's up to the sovreign state how they implement it and to what extent. UK is perfectly at liberty to correctly reflect the unique nature of the freelancer market here a compared to the rest of the EU. My fear is that they won't but will implement another one-size-fits-all nonsense.