I, admittedly a Yank who flies frequently to the UK, find all this blather about "must have ATC, no DIY ATC stuff amusing. Farnborough (EGLF), is outside CAS, for God's sake. You lot have various levels of service which are pretty unique to the UK, like the ATCSOCAS. Just join the rest of the world with CTAF. I was landing in Palau (PTRO, Heathrow Director) at night last week with two other FAR 121 carriers, all in uncontrolled airspace with "cruise clearances". We worked it out just fine. VMC didn't hurt.
GF