Flying a drone anywhere in East Anglia will put you in very close proximity to one airbase or another.... it's a small area with a lot of military infrastructure. I've flown in Temple Bruer to shoot a Templar preceptory tower and had to register the flight with RAF ATC beforehand. Odds-on that this is just the media blowing the ordinary into the extraordinary.
Addendum.
If a few drones popping up in East Anglia makes for a good 'inherent threat' news story in November... They're going to go hysterical on the 25th of December... remember the 80's song "99 red balloons"?
I don't believe we need RID here in the UK. I misread a NOTAM and flew a Min 2 illegally. The police came to my exact takeoff point within 5 minutes flying and confiscated my equipment. Received it back later. (Really lucky) Now I read all Notams very carefully so as NOT to make the same mistake again.