Editing Westminster (section)

==Wider uses of the name ==
Given the focus on Westminster in English and British public life over centuries, the name "Westminster" is casually used as a [[metonymy|metonym]] for the UK Parliament and for the political community of the United Kingdom generally. (The [[Civil Service (United Kingdom)|civil service]] is similarly referred to using the name of the northern sub-neighbourhood which it inhabits, "[[Whitehall]]".) "Westminster" is consequently also used in reference to the [[Westminster system]], the parliamentary model of democratic government that has evolved in the United Kingdom and for those other nations, particularly in the [[Commonwealth of Nations]] and for other parts of the former [[British Empire]] that adopted it.

The term "Westminster Village", sometimes used in the context of British politics, does not refer to a geographical area at all; employed especially in the phrase "Westminster Village gossip", it denotes a supposedly close social circle of members of parliament, political journalists, so-called [[Spin (public relations)|spin-doctors]] and others connected to events in the Palace of Westminster and in Government ministries.

{{wide image|Westminster from the dome on Methodist Central Hall.jpg|750px|Panorama of Westminster taken from the roof of the [[Methodist Central Hall]], with [[Westminster Abbey]] at right}}