In a gesture of national unity, United Bermuda Party candidates did a round-the-Island taxi tour yesterday.

Starting in the St. George's Town Square, the entourage of eight taxis took the candidates to St. David's, the Airport, and rest homes across the Island.

They chatted with folks and handed out campaign material at each stop.

Party leader Grant Gibbons lunched at Jamaican Grill with about a dozen of his colleagues, while the rest of the team had reservations at Spot Restaurant and the Green Lantern.

Later yesterday the entire team gathered at New Creation Worship Center in Warwick to pray for "national unity and reconciliation" at a Service for Unity.

"Since the beginning of this campaign the new United Bermuda Party has been reaching out to the people of Bermuda, listening to their concerns and telling them of our common sense plan for the future," said UBP spokesman Jamahl Simmons in a prepared statement.

"Today's taxi tour and church service is just one more example of that effort as we work to bring Bermuda together and move ahead."

Taxi driver Paul Daniels was not impressed with the caravan of taxi drivers who were driving the UBP around.

"I think the taxi drivers don't see the whole picture," he said. "I'm not for GPS, but that don't mean I'm going to vote for the Opposition - the party that kept us enslaved for 400 years. All of a sudden they are a new UBP, there was nothing wrong with them before but they are a new UBP. That's what I'm trying to figure out - what's new about them because they've got more black faces up-front?"

He added : "There's a lot bigger picture than them GPS and these people are selling their soul because the UBP says they are not going to put GPS in their damn taxis?"

Mr. Daniels added that "no politician can be trusted" but he trusted the PLP more. "I've always been labour and I figure they've made some mistakes but it's not as bad as The Royal Gazette makes it out to be. The Royal Gazette's a right wing paper."

Dispatcher Melinda O'Connor, who was also greeted by the politicians at the Airport, said she didn't follow politics but had not been impressed by the political parties.

"Neither one has changed," she said. "To me personally they are just interested in putting money in their pockets. They are not worrying about we people. All they're worrying about is lining their pockets with money."