[N]othing justifies the fact that Mr Schwarzenegger – who once railed against “economic girlie men” – has allowed California’s budget to grow by 40 per cent to a morbidly obese $144 billion since 2004, setting the stage for a calamity of asteroid-hitting-the-Pacific proportions the moment tax revenues began to fall.

So what now?

The governor wants to raise taxes – exactly the same thing that his predecessor tried to do before being terminated by a certain Hollywood action star – while his fellow Republicans are objecting, without suggesting anything cleverer. Until a solution is found, California is done, dead, kaput. It is, as John Cleese might have put it, an ex-state. In the meantime, I suggest we put Mr Schwarzenegger on an aircraft, fly him back to Austria and ask politely for a refund.