I am sure they want oversight but that is neither a reason nor excuse for ignoring their treaty obligations.
Which obligation are they ignoring? There seems to be the impression that the ICAO Annexes are vastly prescriptive. They are not and accord a fair measure of discretion to individual sovereign states. Whilst under ICAO there is a requirement for countries to recognise and facilitate international commercial flights, there is no obligation to allow permanent stationing of another country's aircraft in its territory, nor the privilieges which go with it. In the US, for example, you cannot keep a foreign registered aircraft permanantly - it has to be put on the N register. So in fact, the UK and indeed Europe are more generous than the US!