Shakespeare, scooters and Mandarin…

CHRIS BENNETT found some surprising news this week…

A COUPLE of pals have recently acquired motor scooters; that is not surprising, or even interesting. What is, is that they are both around my age.

We tend to associate scooters and motor bikes with young people; this could change.

As you may have immediately surmised, they did this for reasons of economy; petrol has become unrealistically priced, and is likely to become more so.

Johan bought a large-wheel scooter and Fanie a small-wheel scooter. In my youth when I got my first scooter, with large wheels, the terms for those two types of motor bike were moped and scooter.

The two scooters with small wheels then dominating the market were the Lambretta and the Vespa both made in Italy, the home of the motor scooter. The Vespa, so named for the sound it emitted (vespa is the Italian for wasp), became the global image of a motor scooter, and is still highly popular today; but it comes at a price, a high price.

So my friends went Chinese, another indication of the way things have changed.

The Chinese presence in the world of motoring is still small in most countries – China would be an exception I would think.

That presence came to centre stage last week when the Chinese premier, Mr Wen Jiabao, made an official visit to Europe and Britain. In Britain he launched a new car, the MG Magnette, the first new MG in 16 years. The car is designed and built at the Longbridge factory near Birmingham, from parts manufactured in China by the company that owns the Longbridge factory and the MG marque. There is every chance that the car will be good.

Another thing that Mr Wen did was brought to my attention by a delightful Telegraph column by the Mayor of London, the delightful Boris Johnson. Mr Wen visited Shakespeare’s birth place, where he was given a private performance of Hamlet.

As Mr Johnson wrote, “It is, of course, a huge tribute to Mr Wen that he can follow Hamlet as Shakespeare wrote it, picking it all up off the bat in a way that most GCSE English students would struggle to imitate.”

He goes on to wonder if there is a UK politician who could go to Beijing and read the poetry of the Ming dynasty.

William Shakespeare was internationally known in his own lifetime, remarkable though that may sound. The first performance of Hamlet outside England was given in Indonesia in 1609; to save you the arithmetic, that was 402 years ago. According to Mr Johnson, who should know, in China Shakespeare is hailed as the greatest writer who ever lived.

This cooperation between two old societies reminded me of the relationship between the South Coast and its seasonal visitors, who are here this week and for a while to come. We provide the amenities and the accommodation, while they produce the wherewithal to enjoy them.

As I pointed out recently in this column it is good to see the fine new fishing pier in Margate.

Margate was the subject of an interesting section in last week’s Herald. It reprinted adverts and some history of the town half a century ago and made for fascinating reading.

CB