And he had another VIP...

And he had another VIP limo ride booked so that he could exit Television Centre quickly, comfortably and without having to brave the early morning chill. Furthermore, I couldn"t resist pulling my return rail ticket out of my pocket and explaining that I - one of those evil, planet-destroying motorists - had chosen to travel by train that day.

I wasn"t trying to embarrass him or lose him his job. My aim was to expose the simple and very real fact that even the most committed, highly rewarded, professional car-loathers use motors some - or all - of the time.

Michael Palin is the latest Transport 2000 representative (he calls himself President) to be found guilty of hypocritical words and acts. The excruciatingly awkward problem for the comedian-cum-TV presenter is that the organisation over which he now presides says as part of its official mission statement that it "seeks movement towards a society that relies less on cars, lorries and planes". And this philosophy clashes with Palin"s personal and professional travel habits, which involve him choosing - nobody forces him, after all - to sometimes do more air travel in a year than most ordinary people might do in a lifetime.

The allegations are - and neither Palin nor Transport 2000 seems to deny them - that he has done hundreds of thousands of miles in polluting aeroplanes, such as the trips he made for his Himalaya BBC TV series, for example. In the opening paragraph of a statement he recently wrote and that Transport 2000 published, Mr Palin acknowledges his dilemma. He confesses: "I am someone who cares deeply about the environment and also someone who has, over the last 17 years of making travel programmes, been busy polluting this environment in almost every conceivable form of carbon emitting vehicle."

He also admits that he "flies and drives" around the globe, although he hopelessly attempts to clear his conscience by claiming to use "dog-sleds and dug-out canoes whenever possible". How far he actually travels in them he doesn"t say.

Even Transport 2000 publicity shots show Palin perched astride a bicycle or shod with walking boots, telling owners of all-wheel-drive vehicles to "take the bus". Michael Palin the comic, presenter and author, I admire. President Palin of Transport 2000 is a different animal. He fails to practise what he preaches!