Hundreds of fuel campaigners headed home last night vowing to enjoy Christmas and to bring their protest back to the capital in January.
Ministers sighed in collective relief as a hugely successful police operation prevented a repeat of the disruption and chaos which had directly challenged the Blair government's authority during the fuel blockades last September.
Police and independent estimates had between 400 and 600 people attending a larger-than-expected rally in Hyde Park in support of demands for cuts in fuel tax.
However, the advance of winter, floods, ongoing rail disruption and the pre-budget concessions of the Chancellor, Mr Gordon Brown, had plainly dimmed public support for the protest, and it seemed unlikely that the so-called "Jarrow" crusade would set off a fresh wave of demonstrations in the immediate future.
As a 150-strong convoy crawled through Edinburgh on its way to the Scottish Parliament, a six-strong delegation drove on Downing Street in a harvester and tractor towing a trailer with a coffin draped in the Union flag. The protesters delivered a wreath representing the "death" of the farming and haulage industries, together with letters of protest and three P45s.
One of the founders of Farmers for Action, Mr John Pratt from Llanfilo, near Brecon, Wales, had brought the coffin to Whitehall after borrowing it from a local undertaker. "We are facing one of the greatest tragedies this century in agriculture, and the wreath was made up of corn and other agricultural things, representing the industry," he said.
At the same time the government was maintaining its own propaganda offensive, with Mr Brown joining the Transport Minister, Lord Macdonald, in talks with representatives of the Road Haulage Forum. A government spokesman said it was entirely "coincidental" that the meeting was taking place on the same day of the protest.
But Lord Macdonald used the occasion to spell out the detailed implications of the Chancellor's pre-budget promise of a £1 billion package which would include rebates for truck-drivers worth between £150 and £4,625 on tax discs in the current financial year.
Hailing the success of its "Operation Gold", the Metropolitan Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Mr Andy Trotter, congratulated the protesters for co-operating with a police plan which had enabled their demonstration to proceed while respecting the needs of Londoners.
Protesters from Wales and the north-east, who began their journey in Newcastle last Friday, led a convoy of some 350 vehicles into London but were required to leave them on a section of the A40 Westway, converted into a car-park for the duration, while they attended the Hyde Park demonstration.
As long tailbacks built up on the Westway, Mr Edmund King of the RAC Foundation criticised the police containment tactics, suggesting they were causing greater disruption than the protesters themselves.
However, as the protesters complied with their 3.30 p.m. deadline to head for home London's roads were quickly returning to normal last night, with some of the most serious problems resulting from the switching-on of the Christmas lights in the West End.