FlyingForFun
If flying IFR the last people I would talk to would be London Info; they are mostly used by PPL students and people going abroad (flight plans).
I would talk to the nearest place with a radar, e.g. Exeter, Solent, Thames, Boscombe, Cardiff. Even a "flight information service" from them is worth a lot more than anything I get from london Info (in my view).
Scheduled traffic does fly in VMC and IMC without an RIS, outside CAS, to some places, amazingly, especially when the radar is down.