That's interesting, the contract market in London (in the same sense you're describing) tends to offer a 100% premium on permanenet staff remuneration.
Exactly right. I was a contractor in the UK from 1997-2001 and I used to get double the full time rate. Then the dot com boom busted and the market for contracting collapsed for a while. When I emigrated to OZ I hoped to find the same kind of market but it doesn't really exist in the same way.