I continue to find the agressive & inflexible attitude of controllers at Manchester airport quite remarkable
I haven't found this to be the case. Admittedly I'm not a regular visitor but on the many occasions I've ended up diverting there with a less than substantial amount of fuel left in the tanks ATC at MAN have been very flexible, and patient when we get lost amongst the mess of taxiways they have to deal with day in day out. I think it is very easy to forget that these guys have a tough job - if they are being inflexible on occasion there will be a very good reason for it.
If this trial is successful then great, but the feedback I'm getting from mates who are MAN based is that the voice is difficult to make out.