Note: In the Manhattan in Reverse introduction, Hamilton notes "I also took the opportunity to revise 'Footvote', bringing it slightly more up to date": The original opens with the date 2003 and "It was the day Tony Blair was due to give evidence to the Hutton enquiry", the revision has 2010, Gordon Brown and "to appear before the Iraq Enquiry again." Many online retailers of the standalone story share erroneous description "Taken from [...] collection Manhattan in Reverse, Footvote is a thrilling short story featuring Paulo Myo of the Commonwealth Saga." While that also opens with discovery of wormhole transportation, the continuity is completely different; Myo appears in the title novella, "written exclusively for this collection."

Synopsis: Day after tomorrow, the UK is "going to rack and ruin" due to politicians' ineptness, well-deserved enmity of the EU but most of all, mass emigration by a wormhole to another world, whose inventor declared disquietingly draconic rules to prevent repetition of Earth's faults. A divorced mother has to make a hard choice...