I wonder if I go to http://www.apple.com/ if it redirects to the UK site if I'm in the UK?
It doesn't, but this has always been the case. Apple didn't even own apple.co.uk until recently; the official site was apple.com/uk
Most likely not. Apple generally does not redirect people to their locale-specific version of their site. I'm in Canada, and I can visit apple.com without being redirected to apple.ca, for instance.