I can sort of see your point rogervisual,
if the aircraft was already in the hold then it should probably be assumed it was on a procedural service. If it wasnt then basics fair game.
I dont think it was a cop out though, it sounds to me like the atco was trying to expedite non-training traffic ahead of a trainer and found a safe way to do it (get everyone onto a basic service
)
Either way he tacked on a vmc descent so its all good and safe.
Hey Bookworm, why didn't your man just say procedural?