UK ATC has a strong trade union and its personnel are heavily embedded in the system, with a revolving door of employment between the military, NATS, the CAA and other employers. All the rules, requirements and procedures for UK airspace, as well as the phraseology, are written mostly by ATCOs and ex-ATCOs.
They have obvious incentives to create an environment like this which requires as much ATC activity as possible.
A very good description of the UK system.
The reason for strict phraseology is that everyone can make themselves understood even if English is not their native language and they speak with an accent.
That’s also true. It is an issue the US doesn’t have. The issues in Europe are mainly
BerlinFlyer wrote:
In my opinion, I think people need to losen up and simply not be afraid of the radio.
Absolutely – that is key. But there are also some substantial differences between US and (continental) Europe that makes the “why the hell don’t we just do it the US way” not so simple.
First of all there is language! On all frequencies where English is the main language, 90+% of the pilots in Europe do not speak their first language (while in the US it is 90+% who do!). I really do not want to hear a 80 year old “seasoned FI” trying to do “conversational chatter” in English on these frequencies – it’s actually enough “fun” to hear the young microlight Tom Cruises who want to impress their ladies by using broken Esperanto on the German FIS frequencies…
Second there is professionalism (and not in the BS meaning of “I feel great because I believe I do things so much better than others”, but in the true meaning of “I do things for a living”): Due to the completely different nature of licensing for airline flying, the share of professional pilots in the air – esp. in small GA airplanes – is much higher than in Europe. Those people are trained to become an airline pilot but need to spend a couple of hundred hours in small GA airplanes. Plus we have a much higher share of FIs who really do that for a living.
In Europe – in contrast – we still have a larger group of silver back FIs who learned flying themselves in Gliders w/o radio and somewhere along the way made their PPL-A FI ticket when it “was cheap” but never really got used to true cross country flying.
I didn’t read the whole thread but it seems to me that phraseology is one of the things that are helped by the fact that US CFIs are required to have an IR before taking the Commercial then the CFI course.
If all European instructors had to get the IR before FI training, many things would be different in European GA (but we would have far less instructors IMO 
).
Just my 2 cents.
I think US is special,
- First is regulatory: no need to be “radio proficient” to fly in FAA land, you don’t even need radio licence unless flying elsewhere !
- Second is cultural: informal way of doing things, straight to the point, maybe they never had kings & queens?
US ATC there takes European pilot with big hugs even when you are using crappy non-US phrasology
In other words, no one corrects you on format & lyrics as long as tone & intentions are correct !
I asked for “Flight Information, overhead join & 3 circuits” in KSMO, it went fine with a funny remark (should have asked “Basic Service”, it would have been more funny ), try asking for “3 patterns & flight following” in EGTK and you will get a day lecture 
Maybe worth asking FAA pilots what they think of UK 400 pages on the topic? and QFE transit clearance of MATZ
