WRITTEN ON March 8th, 2007 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Ideal Goverment - project

We’ve lost the opinionated and technically brilliant Chris Lightfoot. Just as MySoc went seriously national (with the 1.8m signature road pricing petition and a major Downing Street policy initiative drawing on their work) it seems that life became too much for Chris. I only hope he understood how much we appreciated and valued him. There’s a note on his blog, with comments building a book of remebrance, and Tom – who has been just sterling and wonderful through all this – has done a wonderful piece.

I’ll never forget the work he did with Tom to explain the new axes of politics. Chris occasionally graced Ideal Gov with some trenchant and grumpy interventions – see for example his ID architecture.

Chris’s family spoke bravely at a very moving funeral. I didn’t know his friends (other than the gang) and background but I do know we’ve lost a unique contributor and catalyst in a great and exciting change that we’re just starting to go through. Everyone’s unique, of course. But Chris made that universal truth delightfully obvious. It’s a difficult passing, too hard for him and almost unbearable for those close to him. But all of us in the wider community touched by his work can remember and appreciate the brilliant things he achieved. * Thanks J for breaking the sad news. I took down a shorter earlier version of this while friends and family dealt with the funeral.