I'm not a scientist, so a lot of this may not be applicable to your field, but I'll make a few points that I've learnt about the US v UK difference:

The timescales are a little misleading, a UK PhD often runs into a 4th year (or sometimes longer), and a US PhD can be completed in 4 years, so you have to be careful about assuming there will be a defined 2 year difference and you are 'wasting' two years.

A US PhD offers more than a UK PhD, (eg it's more structural, more teaching/training etc) you simply won't be getting the same learning experience - this is not to say the US PhD is better, although many US academics will argue that, and this is not helped when the likes of the THES keep harping on about UK PhDs being 'dumbed down'.

US PhDs are more competitive, tbh I would have thought getting into Yale or John Hopkins (and winning funding) with just a UK undergrad degree would be a difficult task.

This issue of changing uni's for versatility is nonsense (and often raised on this forum) - if you are happy with your university in London, then there is no reason not to stay. The only strong reason to favour the US would be if you plan to work there.

I'm confused about whether you're asking about copy-editing or having someone actually look at the substance/content of your research.

But assuming you're talking about proofing/copy-editing, then the vast majority of uni's allow this (but do check your regulations, some don't).

If you're referring to having a professional look at the quality of your work with respect to the content/commenting on the depth of your research etc, then that is not allowable, but it would probably be impossible to find someone with the same subject knowledge to do that anyway.

No, definitely not too old - in most countries completing a PhD in one's 30s in pretty standard anyway. I know people who have started PhDs in their 40s, and now have successful academic careers, and they tend to do very well (maybe it's the maturity factor).

Your actual stumbling block might be a gap in knowledge/research methodology skills etc. Doing a masters or diploma usually offsets this problem.

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Decided against giving advice.

It's definitely not over-the-top and it always looks more professional than scribbling email/telephone numbers on a scrap of paper. You may have to check with your university as to whether you can use their official business cards or not. Alternatively, you can just get a non-affiliated card with your details on (Vista Print used to do freebie ones).

Basically, no...you can't do a masters without a bachelors degree/or equivalent.

Why not re-register and finish your degree?

I went into Sage Journals (which is the publisher) but wasn't subscribed to that particular journal.

You shouldn't be upset, you obviously did well by being congratulated, and thus, the PhD lark is for you! Panels seem to be a baptism of fire, and some academics come out with really difficult questions just for the sake of it, while others want to test your defence. At my review it was a fellow student who was unpleasant in her questioning (she actually didn't understand my subject, but turned it so as to discredit my work...this really annoyed me and I didn't have the time to defend myself).

Oh Skin really, if you'd spent 3 weeks on this matter you'd have offered much more information in your opening post. While readers are happy to answer questions here, we are not simply a freebie directory. All universities hold very comprehensive and up-to-date info. on their courses, and you can always double check this by phoning admission (rather than relying on a forum). The answer is out there...you just need to find it. Have a fabulous day too!

I forgot....CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

Yes, I recall being told it's okay to contact the internal examiner after the viva for advice on improvements. You should have been given a list of corrections, but maybe it will be attached to your report.

Just to add a Young Persons Railcard (you don't actually have to be 'young' to have one of these, but be a full-time student) will allow you to travel during peak hours with saver or off-peak tickets.

I'd opt for one or two: good funding, teaching experience, both have good RAE rankings. But since the teaching commitment is less for Edinburgh, then that tops the list (and also the fact it's a beautiful city).
Manchester looks a great offer too, but discovering the supervisor has 25 PhD students would raise a red flag for me, and I'd scrub it off the list.
I'd steer clear of the OU purely on the basis that some departments will be snobby about recruiting a PhD from the OU (I'll may get blasted for saying that), and on another point, although the RAE needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, coming 43rd is very low.

To echo Smilodon's comment, the actual project may be the decisive factor here - although it's all Greek to me too, the projects titles do seem quite different. You must have a preference to a project.

I write in third person, passive voice - which is the norm for academic writing in my discipline. The active voice is clearer, more powerful and involves a shorter word-count, but it just doesn't work well in lots of disciplines, and I've never come across a thesis written wholly in the first-person.

I have seen a lot of writings where the abstract will be in first-person 'I intended to research a, b and c', the main body of the thesis is in third-person, then the conclusion will revert to the first-person, 'I make the following recommendations...'. This makes the conclusion more powerful, but a grammar expert will say it's wrong to flip back and forth from first- to third-person.

I don't why, but I find first-person writings using the royal 'We' really annoying eg. 'Here we see a and b do not correlate'.

I would steer clear of using first-person or active writing as some old school types won't like it - although I'm often tempted to use it in concluding remarks.

As for second-person usage 'The researcher...'/'The author...', I've rarely come across this.