I have resisited, waiting for the EASA situation to develop
Lots of people have done that. Bad move. Even from now, you would have 3 years to the earliest possible EASA attack on the FAA route. 3 years of priceless IFR around Europe.
you tell me where the CAA makes such a statement.
It has been repeated in many publications. As well as bookworm's example, there is GASIL and GASCO - both written to read like they are written by the CAA itself, distributed to the G-INFO database which is obtained from the CAA, so in effect CAA-sponsored.
It's a very tiresome statement to find around the place, over and over.
IMCR can be much more than a "get you home" rating; it allows you to fly safely on many UK days where VFR flying would be risky. But it's not "IFR-Lite".
Why not??? What is the actual operational difference? Having to work out Eurocontrol routings?
And it certainly isn't en-route IFR; I think that's pretty much irrelevant to UK flying.
Only because one "can" fly around the UK in Class G, at low levels. But a reasonably long trip is possible in the UK, south to Scotland can be 500nm. Why not fly it full IFR?