I spent my whole career thinking if a controller cleared me do something and I thought it was safe I could. Now I have to figure out if he had the authority? Once a controller told me to descend immediately to 9,000 ft and an FAA inspector was giving me a line check on a descent. I said I would have to slow to 250 at 10 telling the FAA guy that only the administrater can authorize high speed below 10. If the FAA guy hadn't been in the jump seat I would have done it but I liked my license and job a lot. Once these guys were told to treat it like an uncontrolled airport the monkey was on the controllers back and if they felt safe they should have landed as they did.
I was landing one day at KSNA it a four engine jetstar corporate jet and the tower cleared me to land. On very short approach the aircraft on the runway hadn't cleared so I went around. Tower said he would have cleared in time. I just said, we are not in a hurry, we just want a clear runway.
The runway is only 5700 ft long.