Parliament Square

Parliament Square is a square at the northwest end of the Palace of Westminster in London. It features a large open green area in the centre with trees to its west and it contains ten statues of statesmen and other notable individuals.

As well as being one of London's main tourist attractions, it is also the place where many demonstrations and protests have been held. The square is overlooked by various official buildings: legislature to the east (in the Houses of Parliament), executive offices to the north (on Whitehall), the judiciary to the west (the Supreme Court), and the church to the south (with Westminster Abbey).

Location

Buildings looking upon the square include the churches Westminster Abbey and St Margaret's, Westminster, the Middlesex Guildhall which is the seat of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, Government Offices Great George Street serving HM Treasury and HM Revenue and Customs, and Portcullis House.

Roads that branch off the Parliament Square are St. Margaret Street (towards Millbank), Broad Sanctuary (towards Victoria Street), Great George Street (towards Birdcage Walk), Parliament Street (leading into Whitehall), and Bridge Street (leading onto Westminster Bridge).

Square

In geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90-degree angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle in which two adjacent sides have equal length. A square with vertices ABCD would be denoted ABCD.

The square is the n=2 case of the families of n-hypercubes and n-orthoplexes.

A square has Schläfli symbol {4}. A truncated square, t{4}, is an octagon, {8}. An alternated square, h{4}, is a digon, {2}.

Properties

A square is a special case of a rhombus (equal sides, opposite equal angles), a kite (two pairs of adjacent equal sides), a parallelogram (opposite sides parallel), a quadrilateral or tetragon (four-sided polygon), and a rectangle (opposite sides equal, right-angles) and therefore has all the properties of all these shapes, namely:

Parliament

In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative, elected body of government. Generally a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government (i.e., hearings, inquiries).

Although some restrict the use of the word parliament to parliamentary systems, it is also commonly used to describe the legislature in presidential systems (i.e. the French parliament), even where it is not in the official name.

Historically, parliaments included various kinds of deliberative, consultative, and judicial assemblies (i.e. the mediaeval parlements).

Etymology

The term is derived from Anglo-Norman parlement, from the verb parler 'talk'. The meaning evolved over time: originally any discussion, conversation, or negotiation (attested around 1100), through various kinds of deliberative or judicial groups, often summoned by the monarch. By 1400, it had come to mean in Britain specifically the British supreme legislature.

Origins

Various parliaments are claimed to be the oldest in the world, under varying definitions:

Stina Nordenstam

Stina Nordenstam (born Kristina Ulrika Nordenstam, 4 March 1969) is a Swedish singer, songwriter and musician.

Career

Nordenstam was born in Stockholm. As a child, she was highly influenced by her father's classical and jazz music collection. Her voice led to early comparisons with artists such as Rickie Lee Jones and Björk. Her early albums, Memories of a Colour and And She Closed Her Eyes were jazz-influenced with elements of alternative rock. 1997's Dynamite began a more experimental path—most of the album was filled with distorted guitars and unusual beats. A 1998 cover album, People Are Strange, followed in the same vein. In 2001 Nordenstam went with a more pop-influenced sound on This Is Stina Nordenstam, and features guest vocals from Brett Anderson. Nordenstam's 2004 album The World Is Saved continued the path set on This Is..., but presents a more realized sound and acknowledges her earlier jazz influences.

Her guest appearances include collaboration with David Sylvian's band "Nine Horses", including tracks from the album Snow Borne Sorrow and the Money for All EP. She also provided vocals for Vangelis' Song "Ask the Mountains", Yello's "To the Sea", and a collaboration with Anton Fier. In 2000, Nordenstam featured on a track from Danish prog-rockers Mew's second album Half The World Is Watching Me. The track was later re-recorded for the band's international debut Frengers.

Jeremy Corbyn

Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (/kɔːrbɪn/; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who is the Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington North since 1983 and was elected Labour Leader in 2015. Ideologically, he identifies as a democratic socialist.

Born in Chippenham in Wiltshire, Corbyn attended Adams' Grammar School and later North London Polytechnic without attaining a degree. Before entering politics he worked as a representative for various trade unions. His political career began when he was elected to Haringey Council in 1974 and later was secretary of the Islington Constituency Labour Party (CLP). He continued in both roles until he entered the House of Commons as an MP.

Corbyn has received awards for his work as an international human rights campaigner. As an MP he is known for his activism and rebelliousness, frequently voting against the Labour whip when the party was in government under New Labour leaders Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Corbyn advocates an anti-austerity platform of reversing austerity cuts to public sector and welfare funding made since 2010, proposing preventing tax evasion and avoidance by corporations and wealthy individuals, reducing corporate subsidies, and pursuing an invest-to-grow economic strategy as an alternative. He proposes renationalisation of public utilities and the railways, abolishing university tuition fees, and financing "People's Quantitative Easing" to fund infrastructure and renewable energy projects. A longstanding anti-war and anti-nuclear activist, Corbyn supports a foreign policy of military non-interventionism and a unilateral policy of nuclear disarmament. Corbyn is a member of the Socialist Campaign Group, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Amnesty International and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). He was the national chair of the Stop the War Coalition from June 2011 until September 2015.