Slip roads on to Motorways

I always instilled on my daughter to make use of the length of slip road rather than pull out as soon as she considered safe. My reason is that we all make mistakes, might miss a vehicle in a blind spot. If we do and we are using the length of slip road to join smoothly rather than pull onto motorway early we are given that possibly unseen vehicle time to react to our failings should they occur

Very familiar.  Another scary problem is when the driver of a vehicle coming down the slip road shows no intention of giving way to traffic already on the motorway.  Frequently I have been in the nearside lane, with fast traffic passing me on my right, and a hulking great HGV close to my tail.  So I can't pull out into the second lane, and no way am I going to brake suddenly in front of that following wagon.

One of two things usually happens - either the driver on the slip road rapidly accelerates and uses the hard shoulder to get ahead, or brakes at the last minute, sometimes giving abusive hand signals and his mouth working overtime.  What does he expect me to do differently?  I do watch for traffic coming down (or up) a slip road, but these approaches are not always visible from the main carriageway.  It is very often the case that vehicle(s) on the slip road are moving faster than my permissible maximum of 60mph, and these drivers never seem to try to adjust their own speed so as to be able to drop in behind said wagon.

What gets my goat is the driver that forces their way into the nearside lane from the slip and then forces their way into the next lane when both lanes are nose to tail!

Know what you mean, but I don't have a real problem with the odd single vehicle because I make a habit of keeping a good distance behind the vehicle in front (for 2 chevrons clear road, read 5 or 6 for me) - it is when a line of vehicles all try to get out of the slip road in one go that things get dicy.

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The slowing down on the motorway that is described at the start of the post is very dangerous indeed. 

Vehicles already on the motorway should maintain speed. This is what other drivers are expecting and when anyone slows down suddenly there is a chain reaction behind it. Now, the driver of the vehicle immediately behind will be hopefully aware of the situation ahead and also slow down, or brake, accordingly. But for five or six further back there will be much less awareness of what is developing ahead and the driver with part attention on other things finds the gap with the vehicle ahead has reduced dramatically, and panic brakes. This may stop a collision with the vehicle in front but makes a collision from the rear extremely likely.

Meanwhile, the person who braked in the first place is driving on, blissfully unaware and exchanging insults with the driver of the joining vehicle.

As an aside, the newly qualified learners in Scotland get to drive on motorways with no hard shoulder, two lanes, and no accelleration lane.

There will always be valid reasons for slowing down on a M-way, and drivers should always be ready for such events.  There is no indication in the H C that one should maintain speed regardless.  The optimum speed is 70 mph maximum, subject to road/weather conditions, but there are also HGVs and towed trailers in any form which are limited to 56 and 60 mph respectively, and these vehicles can legitimately, and do, use lanes 1 and 2.  So, for vehicles permitted to do 70 mph, those drivers must always be prepared to slow down at times.

Slowing down, or braking "suddenly" should not happen and, unless it is caused by a vehicle having an emergency due to a serious mechanical/electrical fault, the cause will be due to a driving too close to the vehicle head.