Parliament Square A space for citizenship, a place for people,sounds like they catching up with some of what we were saying,back in 2010 with the Democracy Village Occupation

Tents pitched in Parliament Square by groups of protestors, following the 2010 election. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Parliament Square - London, 1980 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

http://www.hansardsociety.org.uk/research/parliament-square/

A space for citizenship, a place for people 

The purpose of Parliament Square needs to be reconceptualised as a place for the public, a place where the public ‘stake their claim as citizens in rather than visitors to Westminster’. To achieve this, our report recommends developing a new approach to the Square as a ‘space for citizenship‘ as a counterpoint to the key institutions of our democracy which surround it.

Working with Speakers’ Corner Trust, the Hansard Society is promoting this new vision for Parliament Square. 

The Square should not be a passive space but a forum for spontaneous and organised citizenship. It should be redesigned to provide a lively forum in which ordinary people as well as great writers, artists and scientists, can engage in public debate about their ideas and opinions. Events could take place in the Square,
 including, for example, enactments of important moments in the development of British democracy as well as performances of great political speeches and parliamentary debates. Key events in the country’s democratic history such as the signing of Magna Carta as well as national and international days – for example the International Day of Democracy – should be commemorated
 and celebrated in the Square. 

In recent years the concept of the city Square as a place for citizenship has taken on ever greater resonance: 
as events in Egypt unfolded, Cairo’s Tahrir Square became the symbolic focus of the ‘Arab Spring’ whilst anger at the impact of the economic crisis on young people found expression in Madrid’s Puerto del Sol Square. At the heart of Westminster we have the opportunity to remodel the concept of the Square as a truly public space for civic engagement and citizenship. In so doing we would send out a powerful statement to the world about what democracy means to us in the 21st century.

But the next few years are vital if anything is to change in Parliament Square. 2015 marks the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta and the 750th anniversary of the first sitting of Parliament: the eyes of the world will be on Westminster as it marks a global celebration of democracy. These events provide an important window of opportunity that must be exploited urgently if progress in realising this new vision for Parliament Square is to be made.

Impact

A number of organisations and individuals have expressed support for this new vision for Parliament Square. The Speakers’ Advisory Council on Public Engagement and the Magna Carta 800th Committee have both endorsed it and are actively exploring how they might help it be realised by 2015. RICS and RIBA have both expressed their support, as have cultural leaders and politicians from across the political divide such as the former Lord Speaker, Baroness Helene Hayman, Lord Melvyn Bragg, Lord David Puttnam, and the historians Tristram Hunt MP and Lord Peter Hennessey. Organisations as varied as Article 19, the British Youth Council, Democracy Matters, Involve, London Citizens and NCVO have also lent their support.