Westminster is a government district and former capital of the Kingdom of England in Central London within the City of Westminster, part of the West End, on the north bank of the River Thames. Westminster's concentration of visitor attractions and historic landmarks, one of the highest in London, includes the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral; the area lay within St Margaret's parish and Liberty of Westminster, Middlesex. The name Westminster originated from the informal description of the abbey church and royal peculiar of St Peter's West of the City of London; the abbey was part of the royal palace, created here by Edward the Confessor. It has been the home of the permanent institutions of England's government continuously since about 1200, from 1707 the British Government. In a government context, Westminster refers to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, located in the UNESCO World Heritage Palace of Westminster — also known as the Houses of Parliament.

The closest tube stations are Westminster and St James's Park, on the Jubilee and District lines. The area is the centre of Her Majesty's Government, with Parliament in the Palace of Westminster and most of the major Government ministries known as Whitehall, itself the site of the royal palace that replaced that at Westminster. Within the area is Westminster School, a major public school which grew out of the Abbey, the University of Westminster, attended by over 20,000 students. Bounding Westminster to the north is Green Park, a Royal Park of London; the area has a substantial residential population. By the 20th Century Westminster has seen rising residential condominiums with wealthy inhabitants. Hotels, large Victorian homes and barracks exist near to Buckingham Palace. For a list of street name etymologies for Westminster see Street names of Westminster The name describes an area no more than 1 mile from Westminster Abbey and the Palace of Westminster to the west of the River Thames; the settlement grew up as a service area for them.

The need for a parish church, St Margaret's Westminster for the servants of the palace and of the abbey who could not worship there indicates that it had a population as large as that of a small village. It became larger and in the Georgian period became connected through urban ribbon development with the City along the Strand, it did not become a viable local government unit created as a civil parish. Henry VIII's Reformation in the early 16th century abolished the Abbey and established a Cathedral - thus the parish ranked as a "City", although it was only a fraction of the size of the City of London and the Borough of Southwark at that time. Indeed, the Cathedral and diocesan status of the church lasted only from 1539 to 1556, but the "city" status remained for a mere parish within Middlesex; as such it is first known to have had two Members of Parliament in 1545 as a new Parliamentary Borough, centuries after the City of London and Southwark were enfranchised. The former Thorney Island, the site of Westminster Abbey, formed the historic core of Westminster.

The abbey became the traditional venue of the coronations of the kings and queens of England from that of Harold Godwinson onwards. From about 1200 the Palace of Westminster, near the abbey, became the principal royal residence, a transition marked by the transfer of royal treasury and financial records to Westminster from Winchester; the palace housed the developing Parliament and England's law courts. Thus London developed two focal points: the City of Westminster; the monarchs moved their principal residence to the Palace of Whitehall to St James's Palace in 1698, to Buckingham Palace and other palaces after 1762. The main law courts moved to the Royal Courts of Justice in the late-19th century. Charles Booth's poverty map showing Westminster in 1889 recorded the full range of income- and capital-brackets living in adjacent streets within the area. Westminster has shed the abject poverty with the clearance of this slum and with drainage improvement, but there is a typical Central London property distinction within the area, acute, epitomised by grandiose 21st-century developments, architectural high-point listed buildings and nearby social housing buildings of the Peabody Trust founded by philanthropist George Peabody.

The Westminster area formed part of the Liberty of Westminster in Middlesex. The ancient parish was St Margaret; the area around Westminster Abbey formed the extra-parochial Close of the Collegiate Church of St Peter surrounded by — but not part of — either parish. Until 1900 the local authority was the combined vestry of St Margaret and St John, based at Westminster City Hall in Caxton Street from 1883; the Liberty of Westminster, governed by the Westminster Court of Burgesses included St Martin in the Fields and several other parishes and places. Westminster had its own quarter sessions, but the Middlesex sessions had j

John Barbagelata was a San Francisco City Supervisor and 1975 mayoral candidate, when he narrowly lost to George Moscone. He was the owner of a local real estate firm; as of 2020, he was the last Republican to be elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, in 1973. Barbagelata was a realtor and the founder of Barbagelata Realty Company, still operating in San Francisco's West Portal neighborhood, he was a devout Catholic. A conservative Catholic businessman, Barbagelata was opposed to the leftist counterculture that had begun to take hold of San Francisco in the late 1960s. Barbagelata advocated for pro-business policies such as lower taxes and minimal government regulation of business, opposed labor unions and leftist radicals, which made him a target for various leftist militants, he received numerous death threats, a bomb was exploded outside his house, a gun was fired through the windows of his West Portal real estate office, two mail bombs were sent to his house requiring 24-hour police and FBI protection for his family.

Barbagelata was first elected to the Board of Supervisors in 1970 on a campaign of fiscal responsibility and lower taxes. Barbagelata ran for mayor in 1975 against progressive candidate George Moscone, promising low taxes, a crackdown on crime, a fight against corruption and "irresponsible City spending", he lost by less than 5,000 votes. For the rest of his life, Barbagelata maintained that the Peoples Temple far-left religious cult, led by Jim Jones, committed election fraud in the 1975 election by busing in out-of-town church members to double- and triple-vote for Moscone under the names of dead voters, he retired from politics in 1978, returning in the late 1980s to promote a successful referendum creating term limits for City Supervisors

Colin Herbert is a South African rugby union player who last played for the Griffons in the Currie Cup. His regular position is inside centre, but he can play as a fly-half. Herbert represented the Griffons Under-18 side at the 2010 Academy Week tournament. In the same season, he made five appearances for the Griffons U19s in the 2010 Under-19 Provincial Championship. In 2011, he made the step up to the Griffons U21 squad, scoring 32 points for them in five appearances in the 2011 Under-21 Provincial Championship, the top scorer for his side, he made his first class debut during the 2012 Vodacom Cup, playing off the bench in the Griffons' 10–55 defeat to Griquas in Kimberley. He made a single appearance during the 2012 Currie Cup First Division, coming on as a late replacement in their 53–33 victory over the Border Bulldogs in East London and played a further six matches for the Griffons U21sin the 2012 Under-21 Provincial Championship, he made his first start for the Griffons in their opening match of the 2013 Vodacom Cup as they ran out 50–14 winners against the Limpopo Blue Bulls in their first match in Polokwane and played his first senior match in Welkom the following week in a 12–26 defeat to Griquas, marking the occasion by scoring his first senior try.

He made four more appearances and kicked one conversion as the Griffons finish sixth in the Northern Section of the tournament. His involvement in the 2013 Currie Cup First Division was restricted to a single appearance off the bench in their match against the Pumas in Nelspruit, he made one start and one substitute appearance in the 2014 Vodacom Cup as the Griffons matched their 2013 result by finishing sixth, before making three appearances in the 2014 Currie Cup qualification series, a tournament, introduced to determine the final team to play in the 2014 Currie Cup Premier Division. Herbert scored his first points in the Currie Cup series during this competition, kicking nine points during the season, but the Griffons lost out on a spot in the Premier Division by finishing third to progress to the 2014 Currie Cup First Division. Herbert played in two matches in the First Division, which saw the Griffons finish in second spot on the log. Although he didn't feature in the title play-offs, the Griffons won their semi-final 45–43 against the SWD Eagles and win the final 23–21 against the Falcons to win their first trophy for six years.

He featured in six of the Griffons' matches during the 2015 Vodacom Cup, with his side once again finishing in sixth spot in the Northern Section. Herbert is the son of Eric Herbert, who played 205 career matches for the Griffons between 1986 and 2001, scoring 2608 points to be the highest-scoring player in the history of the union