Seems that Manchester can produce a mixed bag. As it was I did ring the duty controller after I landed (at their request) and he proceded to re-iterate what had been said to me on the airwaves (when I had actually been with Liverpool Approach anyawy). You never can be 100% sure, but it was CAVOK and I know my way back and forth from Liverpool reasonably well, having done it about 10 times in the last 6 months. I know the airspace well - I know when I can and can't climb and what the limits are. Even if I was wrong, they seemed to have a huge amount of time to deliver a bollocking if they were busy. Perhaps a suggested chat later (by phone) might have been more appropriate and less argumentative / more productive? I think the bloke just had an anti-GA bee in his underpants. There also wasn't any heavy stuff in the area - it was CAVOK - NSW ... I would have been able to see most of it