Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Shared taxis ... and local Conservatives

Arriving back at St George’s Belfast City Airport, I queued up at the empty taxi rank to make the short trip home across East Belfast. After five minutes a couple of taxis arrived. Second in the queue, I told the second taxi where I wanted to go.

“Hold on a sec!” he cried as he ran up to the taxi in front of him. “You’ll want to jump in that other one – he’s going to your street already”. What’s the chance that someone else living around the corner was making his way home too?

Interesting guy. Just back from the Conservative Party Conference in Bournemouth. Couldn't have been too many locals at that one. An enthusiastic supporter of David Cameron, and looking forward to Dave’s upcoming visit to Northern Ireland. Unfortunately he’d had to leave just before the closing speech in order to catch his flight.

There's a strong possibility that the UK Labour Party will soon change their policy and allow membership in Northern Ireland (instead of directing all enquiries to the SDLP). The the Conservatives already actively organising in NI - and the recent set of low-level defections from the UUP to the Tories - this could all start to chip away at our entrenched political landscape.

1 comment:

Alan in Belfast (Alan Meban) said...

What a coincidence. Last night's taxi fare came to £7.50. It's always cheaper to use a local firm and not the airport rank - but you run the risk of your flight being delayed, or ringing when you land and not getting one.

As bmi flights taxi to the runway, there's usually a flurry of whispered last-minute phone calls and texts asking family back home to order a taxi to meet them at the airport in 70 minutes time!