fwjc, thing,
I doubt he was referring to the way it is now.
Before JAA was implemented in the CAA days it was possible to be a paid instructor with just a PPL. Then at some point the BCPL was introduced at which point it was necessary to hold a BCPL for paid instructing.
Believe some instructors who only held PPLs were grand fathered restricted BCPLs or something at some stage. I really cant remember the exact details.
So yes going back over 20 years back you would find PPL holding only instructors to be much more common place in the UK.
I suspect Skyhighfallguy is referring to someone from the pre-JAA era.