Check your facts Rustle.
We in France adhere to the ICAO VFR defintion, which permits VFR over the top of a covered layer.
Your UK definition of VFR permits it too, but it is
you who have chosen to place an artificial restriction in your PPL privileges.
None of this has anything to do with IMC and IFR though
I find your approach to IMC and IFR to be rather flexible, but this is not always a bad thing
TvR