Nick, perhaps I've been asleep, but I'm not used to hearing you rant - normally your arguments are reasoned and quitely stated. Obviously this one gets right up your nose!
Can we just consider two things for a moment?
First is relative sizes - in the US and Oz you have to go a long way to risk bumping into someone else. Not so in Europeland.
Second is the predominant weather - even in Summer it's hard to see where you are going in most of Europe, whereas USA and Oz are blessed with wall-to-wall horizons a lot of the time.
I'm no fan of the UK CAA, but I'm not sure "we'll let you do what you like until you f#%k up, then we'll have you" is a good way to go in that environment.
Zeb
P.S: It's not relevant to the discussion, but more than 12000 (no combat, lots of night) if you must know. And yes, I can read Morse.