daring theory...
Runnway inspections have alway fitted around traffic unless there were specific safety reasons to give them more priority. Runway inspections are one of the only regular events where vehicles come close to the runway. It was then seen that the majority of runway incursions and incidents involving vehicles were during runway inspection - runway inspection must therefore be dangerous.
Rather than looking at why these incidents were occuring and ensuring that everyone complied with the procedures already in place which have evolved over decades to work very well someone in an office in Manchester decided it would be much safer to mandate that all runway inspections should be completed all in one go (ensuring only one clearance to enter the runway) and that all arriving and departing traffic should be delayed in to a big bunch so that the controllers will be busy. This seemed like such a jolly wheeze that it was brought to a Middlesex airport near you with the arrival of a wave of new management brought in from Manchester along with the end to conditional clearances. It looks as though it will spreead further until the next clique of management have other ideas...
The controller in question appeared to me to be inviting official comment from UAE - perhaps with the motivation of getting silly rules recinded. Perhaps his motivation was lost in the exchange due to the communication limitations of the radio, but increased blood pressure via the RTF is never a good idea. Sometimes we do all have bad days though, so give the guy a break!
thanks for reading this far - its very cathartic to get rants like this off my chest. Almost makes me feel like there is chance of changing our silly systems