Nothing special Stringer. Month or two ago I went north - 230 miles took 6 hours on the M6 with gridlock and three major road works. Came back via the M62 and M1 with exactly the same result - average motorway speed just over 30 mph.
last week on the M4 we had three glorious miles of a variable speed limit zone at 20 mph with almost no traffic present
lest face it with congested roads / stupid speed limits, rail system,on strike and airports now striking too - we arent even third world any longer. The UK is a disorganised dump.