I don't think I would ever stop laughing if UK got 3G iPhone first! It does sound suspicious, and there's no reason OP would make something like this up really. Its probably just a 'ZOMG WE HAVE MORE STOCK' promo.
went past while i was on lunch and the external iphone signage has been taken down and replaced with promo material for their broadband and their £25 simplicity tariffs
This proved to be the case with my local store, now that I've had the chance to go back. The Apple display that was partially visible in the window must clearly have been the old display that was being removed, rather than a new one going up.
Apologies for the false alarm - as I said previously, it simply struck me as unusual to see people working that late in the evening with the window display obscured.
I don't know why people think that there is some conspiracy with all this.
O2 priced their 8 gig iphone below their US dollar counterpart --- so naturally every Chinese and Russian company are buying UK iphones to be shipped back to China and Russia. It's just your classic arbitrage.