contentsmayvary makes some valid points. Having lived in a variety of places
in the UK, from urban to an island village, I get the impression that for some
communities the ability to dial a local number without the area code in part
helps define their sense of localness, ie. it forms part of the culture, though
perhaps without their being that aware of it. More relevant to rural areas and
islands of course. On an island where I used to live, any local number is just
6 digits. I suspect if they had to start dialing the full 11 digits instead, there'd
be an outcry.
Mind you, it's likely a generational thing. Younger people who mostly use
smartphones will be used to dialing a full number most of the time anyway
(or they just use an icon or predefined hot key, etc.), so I doubt they'd
care much about any change.
Brits can be oddly sensitive about this sort of thing, or at least those
who are of greater age. We like to hang on to things that help reinforce
what is probably a false sense of localness, when in reality the world
has long since moved on. Mind you, this may be partly what makes the
UK so appealing to tourists, who knows.
Ian.