This thread was going well till the inevitable turf pissing match started.
To the poster who said that we we now suffering from an underfunded NATs. Don't fly in your neck of the woods, and can't reply to the larger issue of funding. What I can say is that airline pilots should never have to rely upon ATC for the WX. Its nice to glean a bit of tactical info from you chaps as to the larger picture, but no pilot should rely wholly on ATC.
As to turns around WX, you are the PIC and sometimes you need to make a turn in the absence of ATC approval. Make sure all other options are pressed first. Remember that ATC at times has operational priorities that are sometimes not the same as ours.