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Comment by nighthawk1 | Hacker News Reader

Due to their lawsuit with FB in the USA. I imagine those documents were obtained by court order. Pretty bold move by the UK gov. Looking forward to the leakage of said documents.

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>Pretty bold move by the UK gov.

This wasn't the UK government, though, but Parliament through its Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee.

Parliament doesn't allow government ministers to be members of parliamentary committees, only backbenchers, as Committees are one of the main ways that Parliament holds the government to account.

Thank you for this distinction, minister vs. backbencher.

> This wasn't the UK government

In American usage, "the government" is the totality of the body which exercises sovereign authority. All MPs, minister or backbencher, are part of the government, because Parliament is a government body. Similarly, any official action by any part of Parliament is an action of the British government.

In British usage, the government is strictly the executive. We don't have formal separation of powers, and the courts and Parliament are very clear they aren't part of the government. You can see this from Parliament's insistence on using 'parliament.uk' rather than .gov.uk, and the judges similarly with judiciary.uk.

Bluntly, Parliament is Parliament. (Her Majesty's) Government overlaps it, but is not the same. The DCMS committee in particular scrutinises government, but isn't part of it. I guess you could describe Parliament as being able to exercise (a few) State powers, but they really aren't a branch of government on the US theory.

I believe it's normal to use the language of the context/subject, that a brand new Congressman is part of the US government but the chairman of a Parliament select committee isn't. Other times that chairmain could be considered part of the government, such as when he follows the whip on a vote.

It's normal for everyone to use their own language. We refer to the Chinese government, not the Chinese zhengfu. And the same criteria that let us know that the Chinese "全国人大" is part of a "government", despite the Chinese preferring not to use that word, also let us know that the British "Parliament" is part of a "government", despite the British preferring not to use that word.

> It's normal for everyone to use their own language.

Das wage ich zu bezweifeln.

Different meaning of language. If you're American, is May the prime minister or the president of the UK?

In the UK context the government is a body of Parliament, not the other way around.

A committee is not of government as it will include MPs from all sides, and seeks non-partisan balance no matter which party is currently in government. The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee currently has 5 members from each of the main parties and one from the LibDems.

Committees can, at times, be quite strident in their criticism of government.

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