"rarely met a colleague who doesn't stick pretty rigidly to standard phraseology'
To who's phraseology? Talk here of adjusting to host country RT. As an example, rarely if ever do I hear a Speedbird heavy refer to themselves as Heavy despite US procedure to do so. Plenty of with you at 3-7-oh check ons. Plenty of "Roger" when it should require a read back. Plenty of verbose readbacks of simple things such as turn right/left heading xxx. The only reason I notice these things is because of the crap I read here. Otherwise they blend in with everyone else and our lousy RT. Must be some particular point crossing the pond Westbound when the ties loosen up a bit. Not just you, same for Virgin, Air France, etc.