I'd still rather have an SLR. That gun is lighter than the SA80 and it shoots every time you pull the trigger.
I'm pretty sure the L85's are lighter than any FAL clone. In a attempt to move the discussion form the rifle here's the history.
The British army wanted a new rifle because it's the full power rifles are kind of stupid for light/mechanized infantry. They had some experience with bullpups in the past and they were still in fashion in the 80's so they decided to develop a bullpup. What the MoD got was basically a AR18 in bullpup form, I don't know if there was any relation with the Sterling made AR180's but that's what they got. So the L85 was adopted.
Problems started almost immediately, the design was sound but the craftsmanship and material choices were not, as a result the rifle had huge issues with reliability and parts breakages. The UK government both perpetually broke and under some scandal decided that fixing the rifle would cost too much money and be too embarrassing so they just didn't. In an effort copy the Russians in a burry your head in the sand contest the UK would go as far as to redefine what "reliability" meant. Different branches of the UK military wouldn't touch the thing so anyone with their own procurement system got different guns. That's why the Royal Marines got M16s from Canada for example.
In the end things got too much and the MoD had to admit there was a problem. I'm a but fuzzy on the details but they started to work on fixes for the rifles in the 90's, even getting in Jim Sullivan (of Armalite fame) as a consultant. At some point the project was passed to H&K (owned by BAE at the time, bongs don't like that piece of trivia left out) and the L85A2 was born.
The L85A2 is a much better rifle, it's still a bullpup so if you don't like them you won't like this. It's one of the first gen militarily bullpups too so it's about as bland in terms of features as you can make it. You don't get any of the fancy side changing, front ejecting bull shit you get with modern bullpups but it does the job. The Brits seem like they want to keep the rifle going forward, they've adopted an A3 variant which has some nice rails and a new grenade launcher.
So what do the bongs have? Well they have a completely unremarkable rifle, it meets any standard of reliability, durably, accuracy, bla, bla, bla. It does have some positives, you get a long barrel for a given length which for 5.56mm is pretty nice. It's heavy but also fairly comfortable to shoot. It's known for being fairly accurate.
tldr: L85(A1) was a piece of shit and spent most of the 80's/90's as piece of shit. They fixed the problems with the L85A2 variant which is basically a rework of the rifle in the late 90's. Just in time too considering the UK would follow the Yanks into the sand box for the next 20 years.
FAQ:
Q: Why didn't they scrap the guns back in the 80's
A: They didn't want to spent the money on adopting new guns. When you adopt equipment you do it as a system, that means new racking systems, spare parts, training, etc. That all gets expensive. Plus it's embarrassing to send your boys out with guns that don't work.
Q: How did they fuck up an AR18 in the first place.
A: They're bongs.
Q: Why bother with an A3 now?
A: The A3 is just an upgrade for the A2. Rifles aren't that important in the grand scheme, the M16, G36, SCAR, etc might be better but they don't offer enough to replace the A2's in service. The A2 does have some positives mostly around it being a bullpup.
Q: Aren't bullpups shit?
A: No. They offer advantages that you just can't get in other types of gun. It's all about compromise, the M16 for example is a very nice gun to shoot and some of comes from the inline recoil spring that goes into stock. But that means you don't get a folding stock. People say that doesn't matter but for some militaries it does.
Q: Will there be an A4?
A: Who knows. I'd imagine that the A3 is about as far as you could take the system without a redesign. If you're going to do that then you might as well adopt a new cartridge while you're at it. I don't know if the UK would adopt the US army's new M5 or whatever it's called.