I did not read the entire thing yet but what I did read makes me think going IMC under RAF radar control might be a dodgy thing.
From what I read, discounting how much was blacked out, I see an image of a guy who had suffered some sort of personal tragedy prior to the day in question. His co-workers asked him how he felt...for some good reason. His supervisor had not gotten around to verifying that he was fit. He admittedly had not signed off or read all of the memo's as required. He lost situational awareness (at best) and gave a clearance that placed the aircraft below the height of the mountain they hit while using it as a checkpoint in discussing handover to the next controller. The changeover was effected by a speed dial setup and not a direct line....required the assignment of the trade off to be decided before the handoff could occur. He had been asked for a descent clearance to by a non-standard terminology. He knew the aircraft were above or in cloud thus could not see terrain. He mishandled the radar by offsetting it vice extending the range setting. He was handling one other aircraft was it or was it a second aircraft was on the frequency. Anyway...he was not exactly swamped with business.
There is a lot of discussion about the whys and wherefores that deal with the very limited effect each variance from established procedure had on the fatal crash that killed two pilots but it does not consider the perception that can be formed by assessing the cumulative effect of so many deviations from procedure and plain old commonsense. I see a sloppy operation that failed to accomplish their mission, that being the safe control of air traffic.
The emphasis on the request for Minimum Vector Altitude is misplaced. The emphasis should be simply on why the aircraft were cleared towards the mountain whose height exceeded the altitude they were cleared down to by the controller....all the time he knew they were headed for that location as evidenced by the discussion he had requesting the handover.
One can say the pilots are responsible for terrain clearance....and they are. One cannot evade responsiblity for a controller giving a descent clearance that is lower than the terrain along which the aircraft will be flying. Pilots must be able to rely upon ATC to ensure terrain clearance is considered anytime an ATC clearance is given. Why else is it called a "Clearance".