Great thread!
Just a quick note to say that 'cmc markets', TD Waterhouse and pretty much most spread betting companies are simply a whitelabel company for City Index - Those are the real people you're dealing with. I should know, I used to work for them! lol
The two big players for spread betting and CFDs is City Index and IG Index - That's pretty much it. Anyone else you find will be going through one of these two companies, that includes iii.co.uk, barclays stockbrokers, and so on...
A little bit of inside info for ya!
As for actually trading, I'm getting back into it myself.