[growse]

Here in the UK, I have a choice of many different ISPs, all of whom (in theory) compete for my business.

Guess what? The big ones are still awful: hijacking DNS, providing horribly congested service and laughable "support". All in the race to cut as much cost and increase profit in the name of being able to undercut the next guy by £1/pm. Competition isn't the pancea you seem to think it is.

> Maybe you in the US should fix the root cause of your problem (legislation) instead of deploying rogue technology making life complex for everyone else?

Maybe you should use a different browser. Or learn how the one you're using works at least.