make wx backends compatible with wxPython-Phoenix

This is based on the comments made to my previous PR for this.

Note that wxPython Phoenix snapshots can now be installed with pip:
pip install -U --pre -f http://wxpython.org/Phoenix/snapshot-builds/ wxPython_Phoenix 
By removing these checks, are you saying that the bug they work around are no longer in effect for wx v2.8 and above?