The heir to the throne, Prince Charles, has started a Green campaigning whistle stop tour of the United Kingdom with a speech in Glasgow. The tour, known as Start, aims to promote a green way of living for the UK. Recognising that people are more likely to start doing some good than being hectored to stop something, the Start campaign aims to show people just what they can do.

Prince Charles will be accompanied by a party of 14 people on the 8-carriage Royal Train as it makes its way from Glasgow to Wales, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and then London.

It’s an ostentatious way to travel–costing the taxpayer some £50,000–but both his Start spokesman and good friend Tony Juniper were keen to point out that the Royal Train operates on recycled cooking oil, bio-diesel! Don’t get down wind of this Royal Train.

Whistle stop tours used to be a favoured way for political campaigns to be organised in both Britain and the USA. So, it’s a return to old-fashioned campaigning, old-fashioned transport and old-fashioned values. And that’s, perhaps, a key part of the Start programme. The tour is supported by many of the great and the good, knights of the realm such as Stuart Rose and many of Britain’s leading businesses, who no doubt sense some advantage.

The last whistle stop is London where the Start initiative combines with the IBM Summit at Start, a nine-day conference beginning on Wednesday 8th September. Prince Charles will give a speech at this conference on his return to London.