April 5 (Reuters) - Israel has detained two British members of parliament and refused entry to the officials who were visiting as part of a parliamentary delegation, British Foreign Minister David Lammy said in a statement late on Saturday.
Sky News, citing a statement from the Israeli immigration ministry, says that the detained parliamentarians are Labour MPs Yuan Yang and Abtisam Mohamed, who were rejected because they were suspected of plans to “document the activities of security forces and spread anti-Israel hatred.”
“I have made clear to my counterparts in the Israeli government that this is no way to treat British Parliamentarians, and we have been in contact with both MPs tonight to offer our support,” Lammy said.
I don’t understand the point you are trying to make. They are government officials. Members of parliament. Your distinction between front and back benchers is accurate but off topic.
MPs are either government officials or backbenchers. These were the latter. It was the difference between the Foreign Secretary sending a stern message and the RAF fuelling the jets.
You seem to be confused. The phrase ‘government official’ refers to anyone acting on behalf of the government, including backbenchers. This could even include unelected aides, spokespeople or some civil servants.
You’re thinking of the cabinet. You do not have to be in the cabinet to be a ‘government official’.
As a fellow brit, these Americans correcting you are right.
Parliament has a handy guide to the difference.
That is a very specific usage: ‘The Government’ as a proposer of law, Parliament as approvers. Outside of a PPE course it isn’t how the term is used and I think you know this.
In day to day use the government (small g) can be talked about as comprising anyone involved in governance, from the PM down to local councillors, depending on context
Calling people out on this based on a technicality is like correcting people when they say ‘speed’ instead of ‘velocity’, and it’s super irrelevant in a thread about MPs acting in a political capacity
That’s where I’m confused. Maybe it’s a language/cultural difference, but I consider all elected members of parliament government officials regardless of the importance of their role compared to cabinet ministers.
Under the Westminster system, Parliament is a separate entity to the Government, even though members of the government are nearly always members of the parliament. It goes back to the English Civil War and what’s run by Kings and what’s run by the electorate.