Due Precautions

If there's one thing that annoys good honest corporate citizens, particularly those with nothing to hide, it's when a bunch of dirty little protesters try to prevent it going about its lawful business, no matter how squeaky-clean and upstanding that business may be. Hence the attempt by UK Oil and Gas to obtain an injunction against anyone organising protests at three sites in south-eastern England where the company plans a few fairly harmless environmental adjustments. Doubtless Her Majesty's Government, that inexhaustible repository of gas and grease whose ambitions for solar and wind power begin and end with the Murdoch Sun and the oratorical flatulations of the Imperial Haystack, will be watching the case carefully for enemies of the people. It is certainly absurd that the insignificant and undeserving should attempt to incentivise profit-oriented corporations by affecting their profits; so UKOG is seeking to prevent interference with its "economic interests" - a term which which, interpreted with sufficient generosity and the law-abiding assistance of the Metropolitan Police, should eventually mean that the company can sue potential protesters for the legal fees which the company has spent in order to keep them from protesting, before anyone has even got as far as assembling a placard.