Dear US voters, in the spirit in which I would beg a dear friend not to get a facial tattoo, I’m writing to ask you not to vote for Donald Trump. While the decision to do so would make a statement, signalling your justifiable anger about the pain you have suffered, it is likely to disfigure you, damage your life chances and prove irreversible. In the wake of his rally at Madison Square Garden, no one can now doubt what he intends to do to you.

I can guess where you think I’m coming from, but I have no love for the Democrats. Unlike the UK Labour party staffers campaigning for Kamala Harris, I have no affiliations. While there have been some improvements under Joe Biden, for decades, regardless of which party was in power, the value generated by the middle and working classes has been mopped up by the very rich. This is the result of 45 years of neoliberalism, a life-sapping programme to which both parties subscribe. I share the horror and disgust many of you feel towards Biden’s foreign policy, especially his support for the Israeli government while it pursues its genocidal onslaught in Gaza and invasion of Lebanon.

But all these things would be worse under Trump. Of Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said last week, “he’s doing a good job” but “Biden is trying to hold him back … and he probably should be doing the opposite, actually”. Earlier this year, he said of the Israeli government, “They’ve got to finish what they started.” If, as Trump allegedly threatened, he “will not give a penny” to Ukraine in aid, Vladimir Putin could do to Ukraine what Netanyahu has done to Gaza. Any prospect of peace on either front would shift from improbable to........

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