Friedman is the vastly-overrated product of a moribund (dead man walking?) industry. He is so blitheringly obtuse that I have had to switch channels away from him for the last 10 years. He hasn’t had an original thought about his supposed area of expertise – the Middle East – in 20 years.

Listening to him speak about economics is like listening to a first-grader sight read Shakespeare: he might eventually get words out that when strung together are close to what was written five hundred years ago, but all meaning, art and thought has been removed. Put another way, if you have lost Friedman, you have lost the war.