Sorry I'll rephrase that as
conflicting traffic in the atz, such as ccts, overflights etc..
It was at their request to practice, not saying I didn't enjoy the spectacle though
why cant I get join instructions to join however I want to
Do you ask? In my experience aircraft joining at Filton get a fairly free hand in joining to land (traffic permitting), It's fairly common to get aircraft carrying out overhead joins to practice pfls, sneaky SRA's and suchlike.