{I would suggest that those people who are spreading demoralising and inaccurate rumours about reqts for UAS flying, official or unofficial, are perhaps bitter in their lack of success and seek to find some reason for their failure other than pure British bad luck.}
Apart from the above statement, which is complete and utter rubbish, you make some good points. This IS a rumour network, so that is why I posted what I did. I stand entirely by what I said in the first place because of the source the information came from.