Thanks for the replies and nice to see the excess verbeage on the LGW ATIS has reduced now. However, the current NOTAM urges pilots to request push for Remote hold whereas the aforementioned ATIS diatribe stated not to! So, which is it?
With regard to the tug crew asking for confirmation of runway in use etc, why not empower the tug crews to initiate our push back request directly with ATC? That's what happens at some (but not many) airports that I fly from, it seems to work quite well.
Agree with Bobwi, when we get line up clearance we're ready to go. It's not like we're going to sit on the runway sipping coffee until we decide to roll.