.uk transfers are a little different:
You instruct your old registrar to change the "IPS tag" to point the domain to your new registrar.
You tell your new registrar that the domain just assigned to them is yours.
The new registrar then dutiful…
freenode will be upgrading their services very soon. One of the major new features that this upgrade will bring is the ability to identify using ssl certificates. Here's a very quick guide on how to get started.