We’ve been hearing about it in the U.S. press on a regular basis for about a year now and it definitely picked up pace before the elections there last November. Now the trend of debating the issue of Net Neutrality has hit the UK. But like most American imports, the British seem rather underwhelmed by it.

The Register reports on the first significant Net Neutrality debate in the UK which was held at Westminster yesterday. It was chaired by former trade minister Alun Michael and the Conservative shadow trade minister Charles Hendry, attendees included Ofcom and a clutch of industry representatives (though interestingly Google, one of the majour lobbyists for neutrality in the U.S. was largely absent), and some members of both houses.

The general consensus was that neutrality is “one of those incomprehensible American phenomenons, from which we’ve mercifully escaped” and “an answer to problems we don’t have, using a philosophy we don’t share.”

Ofcom’s Douglas Scott was present and while he asserted that Neutrality wasn’t a US-only debate he did put forward the idea that, because of the differing nature of the markets in the UK and the US, the pre-emptive technical measures being considered on the other side of the pond probably wouldn’t be appropriate over here.

The Register writes that “in the USA, “all bits is equal” is a mainstream view, in Europe, it isn’t. The European framework permits ISP to prioritize packets by application, which the UK regulator regards as fine. A grey area, Scott suggested, was when an ISP offered MySpace a preferential Quality of Service deal, for a fee. Should the regulator constrain the fee?”

In Ofcom’s view they have done well to not meddle in the fray just yet. Scott concluded by saying neutrality wasn’t an issue, so long as customers could migrate to an alternative provider quickly and easily.

For once regulation over here seems more straightforward than regulation over there.