This is what my roof currently looks like.

My plan is basically to remove as much of the flaking, pitted and bubbled clearcoat as possible, then to slap some fresh laquer over it. It will never be anything close to perfect, but will be a heck of a lot better than it is just now. I don't mind the car wearing some battle scars for its miles, so long as it's at least obvious that some effort has been made to take care of the injuries.
The masking tape idea seems to work pretty well actually to strip off the loose stuff. Going to drop by somewhere later and get some wider tape so it's not quite as tedious!

It's really rather satisfying it has to be said as well.
...Plus unlike picking it off you don't end up with a zillion bits of laquer pinging off and sticking to everything.