Spoke to Brize today.
Very helpful guy spent quite a bit of time talking to me-agreed the instruction I received was contradictory but he said there is some training going on right now.
As others have stated,he strongly advised always query something you do not understand,they are there to help to keep you safe-lesson learned
He said my action to climb over their class D was a reasonable thing to do but it would have been advisable to tell them when making a maneouvre near or in their airspace ( if needed to remain in VMC for instance) as they may have already advised someone else to do like wise.-another lesson learned
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A very positive experience talking to this guy-you never stop learning.
MM