What's your UK ale experience based on? I don't want to and obviously cannot argue about your personal preference.I quite like verdant and use it in UK beers. I prefer it to all other dry UK yeast strains. Have used many liquid strains and while they are better, i still use verdant for bitters and milds etc. I don't think its overly fruity, for me it has a nice amount of esters. I ferment it at the lower temp
It's just that I've never had a single ale during my UK times that was even close to the yeast expression that verdant delivers.