I have just returned from Saudi. I have many friends among the Saudis, but I have to say it is not the greenest and pleasantest land I have traversed.

I also have to say that there are some very real movements for change in Saudi, generally accepted and acknowledged as the most conservative of Islamic societies. We have all read about women sensationally being allowed to drive (from March) and the dropping of the ban on cinemas at about the same time.

But that isn’t actually all of it. When you are there you get carried away with the euphoria of it all and the subtle nuances come out. Women are not just going to be allowed to drive but some enterprising car sales companies are now opening up “women only” showrooms - full of Jags and Beamers of course, because some of those Saudi gals are high maintenance.  And we were treated to banner headlines in the Arab News that women were permitted for the first time to go into a football stadium and watch a match.

And when we are told that some 12-year-old had published a nonsensical jingle on YouTube and risen to astronomical heights of fame in Saudi, we can justifiably furrow our brows and wonder at it all. But this is Saudi, a society effectively starved for many, many years of entertainment. A few theme parks and then latterly some (very good) FECs break the mold and perhaps that is why they are so enthusiastically taken up by the Saudi populace.

It is not for us foreigners to wonder at such backward attitudes towards free-thinking. It may take literally decades for Saudi to get anywhere close to the liberalities of Dubai, for example. But no doubt the authorities have seen the long lines of cars queuing up on the Causeway between Khobhar and Bahrain to get across to the island and its (relative) liberal attitudes towards night clubs, booze and generally licentious living.

If the people want it, then drip-feed it, because overnight transformation would be hugely damaging. The Saudis have got it right, in short.

Meanwhile, the Saudi FEC business by itself is bigger than all of the rest of the Middle East put together - and that’s something to think about.