muninnhuginn | Better pack our wellies, we suppose

This, from The Independent, No protests, please, it's far too dark and muddy [in Hyde Park] just confirms Mark Steel's greatness:

Tessa was also concerned there was a health and safety issue as it would be "very muddy" and "many of the protesters would be leaving after dark". But then she suggested the march go to Victoria Park, in east London, instead. I suppose because it's a couple of miles further north that it doesn't get dark so early there. [...]
The other option was the Millennium Dome. I think you have to give them the benefit of the doubt here and assume they were taking the piss. The next offer was probably going to be Chernobyl.
Also in recent weeks, Hyde Park has been hosting a Star Trek Convention, which doesn't appear to have been banned. I suppose Tessa thought there was no need to worry about them, because if they started sinking into the mud they could all be beamed up into safety.
[...]
It's possible Tessa Jowell was genuinely concerned about how the marchers would cope with sinister forces such as mud and dark. Maybe she'll be stood on the roadside, dabbing everyone's mouth with a napkin and saying: "Put your trouser legs inside your socks or you'll ruin those and they're clean on." Or, if you were cynical, you might imagine the attempt to ban the march from the park had a political motive.
[...]
Hyde Park has been used by all manner of carnivals and demonstrations for over 150 years, including those of the Chartists during the Industrial Revolution, without any discernible long-term damage to the ecostructure. So that makes this Government more authoritarian than the one run by Lord Liverpool. Either that or they've developed one of these neuroses, like these people who can't stop washing their hands but worse, which makes them afraid that their parks could be spoilt by letting people walk on them. Maybe every night Blair crawls through counting the blades of grass, then runs home screaming: "There's three missing."
The amazing part about this story is it's not just an issue of freedom of speech for a minority cause. It's a march that could well be the largest to take place in Britain,
[...]
Maybe to save face she'll put out a statement saying: "At the time the protest was announced, a few weeks ago, it was getting dark at about 10 to four, but following our discussions on15 February it won't start to get dark until an hour later, which is a reasonable compromise."