vintage ATCO,
No problem.
The information Manu Forte was comprehensive, but they needn't have explained what they do in order to defend themselves. I merely wanted their views on a situation where someone asked for a zone transit and was then subject to a telling off. Of course this is only based on the information in the article but it appeared, to me at least, a rather heavy response by the ATC officer at the time. According to the article this wasn't a standard response to a zone transit made at the time; instead another ATC officer actually made the point of contacting the pilot, some five minutes later, for the sole purpose of telling him off for asking for such a request.