Today at Leeds the TWR guy took an extensive briefing of all the options to a certain A/C about flying through their filed IFR flightplan or take a more direct routing with FIS. On which the A/C replied "say again" whereafter TWR gave an even more extensive brief on the options, eventually stating "do you wish to proceed controlled or uncontrolled". Which finally made the point.
The last 4 mins of the transmission we where standing with engines running waiting to taxi...
If the TWR guy had just started with that final sentence it would have saved 5 mins of blattering around on TWR frequency, or just invite the guy to the tower for a cup of coffee.
Also annoying the terrible quality of transmission of most UK controllers compared to german/scandinavian/dutch. Especially when you can hear other aircraft replying very crisp and clear (and much louder...)