Julian,

most like the US, and the UK is probably at the opposite extreme. Here we
have mostly class A and class G, with little between. IFR flight in class
G
is something we do every day -- there's not a lot of choice.

IIRC in the UK you have some sort of "poor-mans-IFR" (no pun intended ;-)
called the "IMC" rating, giving you the right to fly under IMC without being
"in-the-system".

Does that thing make it to JAR-FCL?

Best Regards

Kai Glaesner