To be fair, I'm the first to admit I'm inexperienced and therefore know nothing! That's why I'm asking.
In my short time I've spoken to E Mids when landing and transiting, and Stansted and Luton when nearby, plus a few busy class D airports on the Greek Islands.
I've never felt moved to ask before, but the two guys at Solent were just particularly curt, and their tone of voice suggested they were telling me to p*ss off and it irritated me! I have no problems with my RT. Maybe I'm just being paranoid!
In the meantime I would like to go along and see what an approach controller does. Would something like that be possible at say Stansted?
Cheers