but my point was that the sun was getting higher in the sky, the fog was clearing, the controller had a good view of the whole airfield,and terrain beyond, I was up there with them and could see how the visibility had rapidly improved, yet he insisted in sticking to the book in full knowledge that he had an inbound flight holding at altitude within minutes of having to divert to a distant airfield if he didn't at least advise them that the situation was improving and that the aircraft could shortly expect a descent clearance.
Sorry Speedbird but you were wrong and the controller was right. It is a legal thing, and if your friend was that tight on fuel he should have diverted. If you don't have enough fuel to make an approach at the destination, go missed and divert to the alternate - then you don't have enough fuel to make the approach. And that 10 minute policy is built in to the system to improve the quality of the weather information passed on to the crew. You were lucky in that your shortcut of that safety system didn't bite your friend in the ass.
It would be very risky to fly an approach to minimums without having an out. I would suspect that most companies have fuel policies that prevent you from doing such a thing. I would relate that situation as continuing to your destination and waving your alternate fuel. Most companies have strict guidelines that must be met before waving your alternate fuel requirements (some include the requirement of multiple runways and approaches, no known further delays, and WX well above precision minima).
By passing that information on to your friend you and him both took the risk on your shoulders that he would be landing after his approach. You lined up a couple of holes in the swiss cheese but you were lucky enough that everything else went alright instead of going pear-shaped.
I understand you were only trying to help, and maybe the WX was improving rapidly. But you must understand that aviation is a game of always having back-up plans - that is why we have achieved such a good safety record. Everything we do has backups, and if it doesn't, we are most likely squawking 7700 and including MAYDAY in our call-sign.