If you actually read the Telegraph article word by word, line by line, you will discover that far from expecting to be treated as a special case, they wanted to be treated as an 'ordinary case'. However the Home Office suggested that they required further information without actually saying what further information they required.
Sadly it seems delaying these applications is part of the process of reducing the number of visas issued within any given period.
edit:
as the link to the Guardian article I posted last night makes clear, after the circumstances were written up by several newspapers within hours out of no where the missing information sought by the Home Office was discovered.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We have received all the information we requested to process Mrs Rawlins’ application and we have today issued her visa. We have also contacted her to apologise for any inconvenience.”