By PETER YOUNG

IT is said by writers who become insomniacs that they often have their best ideas in the middle of the night. The mind is unencumbered with trivia, time seems endless and there is no immediate pressure to get anything done. What is more, one can think clearly and constructively. And so it was with me in the small hours recently when I found myself bereft of ideas for this weekly column.

There is so much happening in the world at present that there should be no shortage of material to fill a page about foreign affairs. So, arguably, there should be no problem. But perversely, it seems that the greater the variety of choice of potential items the less easy it becomes to settle on a topic.

This week I should like to turn from the usual international issues to the life of an influential British singer and actress of the 1960s and later, Marianne Faithful, who died last week at the age of 78 - and I should like to link this to a separate piece about the 1960s in Britain, which has been described as one of the most tumultuous and divisive decades in the countries history.

In the first part of her adult life, Marianne Faithful became best known for being the girlfriend of Mick Jagger, the famous front man of the rock band the Rolling Stones, and her influence on them was said to be considerable.

Her life was a story of ups and downs. It can be called at the beginning a portrait of the rock and roll era in Britain and an ‘encapsulation of the 1960s’ that became known as the Swinging Sixties’ during which the Rolling Stones themselves played an influential role in society, particularly in relation to young people.

Plucked out of obscurity while still at school by the manager of the Rolling Stones, she was described as the doe-eyed poster girl of the 1960s and quickly became known for hits like ‘As Tears Go By’ which reached the UK top ten in 1964 and for starring roles in films including The Girl on a Motorcycle’ in 1968.

After her eventual split from Jagger, Marianne fell into alcohol and drug addiction, including heroin, and she suffered what were described as a series of painful life-experiences, including various health problems, and also losing custody of her son.

But, reportedly, people later began to see her as an artist and creator. She recovered and, as one of the faces of the 1960s, carved out a side career as an actress, including a role in Chekhov’s ‘Three Sisters’ and playing Ophelia in Hamlet. The critics judged that her resurrection proved that she became a fully fledged and respected artist in her own right, with one album being nominated for a Grammy Award as best female rock vocal performance. Her 21st and last album, which was produced recently after she had been hospitalised with COVID-19 in 2020, was described by the UK Guardian newspaper as a ‘masterly meditation on aging and death’.

According to reports, Mick Jagger recorded a tribute to his former girlfriend calling her a ‘wonderful friend, beautiful singer, and great actress. So saddened’ - and that, perhaps, says it all.

The ‘Swinging Sixties’ in Britain

AT the end of the Second World War, the victorious Allies led by the US adopted a different approach from the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 which punished Germany so harshly following the First World War that some historians consider that it led ineluctably to the rise of Hitler during the 1930s. By contrast, in 1945 what became known as the Marshall Plan provided the means to help rebuild Europe after the war rather than pushing the noses of the defeated Germans further into the dirt.

Meanwhile, Britain had been severely impoverished by the war. But while recovering, it was forced to pay off its war debts and a difficult period followed that became known as the years of austerity. Historians agree that these lasted until the coronation of Queen Elizabeth Il in 1953 and this was seen as the turning point as normal life and economic development were restored.

More prosaically, the country’s morale was also boosted by other achievements that year like the conquest of Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak, that had been a major goal for so long and England winning cricket’s famous Ashes series against Australia so that by the end of the decade the then prime minister, Harold Macmillan, was able to tell the people that they had ‘never had it so good”.

This became the launch pad for the Swinging 60s, during which Marianne Faithful made her name, as it became an exciting and explosive decade. These years saw a wave of cultural and social change - almost a peaceful revolution -- that challenged traditional norms and rocked society. It was a period of liberation from the constraints of the restrictive Victorian era and a change of attitudes, customs, fashions and practices in society.

With an emphasis on youth and the new and modern, including a more enlightened appreciation of civil rights, it introduced greater equality with freedoms across the board extended to people’s lives. Music, especially rock, became a powerful force for change. It was a period of optimism and hedonism as well as sexual liberation and feminist awakening to include equal rights and pay and the reshaping of the role of women.

If all this seems a considerable mouthful, it is worth recalling just some of the events of the decade. These included the Vietnam war and anti-war protests; the landing on the moon and the first space walk; the Cuban missile crisis; assassinations of President Kennedy, his brother Robert and Martin Luther King Jr; race riots; the Kent State shootings; development of the civil rights movement and new race legislation in the US; prime minister Macmillan’s “Wind of Change” speech about Africa; erection of the Berlin Wall; China’s cultural revolution; and to top it all England won the football World Cup.

Then, of course, the 1960s saw the phenomenon of the Hippies and huge changes in the music world with the emergence of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys -and the list goes on.

This is, of course, a massive subject that deserves much more attention than there is room for today, not least in examining how the new freedoms of the 1960s led gradually to the breakdown of society in so many different ways that has happened in modern times. But that may be for another time.

A president talking out of turn

AS everyone is aware by now, the new US president has hit the ground running with numerous executive orders on a range of issues. He has also shown himself to be hands-on in relation to just about everything that has happened since his inauguration last month.

In due time, historians will judge the efficacy of Donald Trump’s whirlwind approach to his second term in office.

Meanwhile, many people clearly believe that his no-nonsense style and ability to get things done quickly is what America needs. He is a man of action but he also appears to work on instinct and rushes at problems which require calm preliminary consideration and reflection rather than impetuosity.

A notably damaging example of his misguided impulsiveness was his public comment very soon after the tragedy of the plane crash on Wednesday evening in Washington after a commercial airliner collided with a helicopter with the loss of all those on board the two aircraft. By all accounts, his almost immediate remarks about the responsibility for the accident - in particular, whether the helicopter should have been where it was in the path of the airliner coming in to land - were surely ill-founded and thoroughly inappropriate, even if it does turn out from the inquiry that the helicopter should not have been there. People are saying that the official NSTB investigation should be allowed to take its course, and the US President should not be involved in this type of immediate knee-jerk reaction. To coin a phrase, he is the so-called ‘consoler-in-chief’ of the nation and should not be delving into the details of an accident of this sort that is the responsibility of others.

This action by the new president may well disappoint those of his supporters who fear it will add fuel to his critics who say he is too impulsive and unrestrained for the job which requires considered judgement and wisdom. According to folklore in London, one British foreign secretary used to keep on his desk a notice that read ‘Cool, calm deliberation disentangles every knot’. There seems little chance that such advice will prevail at the White House in the coming four years.