> That’s the gp’s point I think, the U.K. doesn’t have the the same separation of powers between government branches as the US. With some minor exceptions, Parliament is the whole enchilada.

An example of this is that, until recently, their "supreme court" was a committee in one of the houses of parliament:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lords_of_Appeal_in_Ordinary

Exactly, and my point was that "government", in UK, means the current executive and means something different from "parliament".

It seems the facebook seizure was not ordered by Theresa May's government, but instead by parliament itself exerting its powers directly.

It's an unusual move and that is what makes this particularly interesting.

I'm not sure why so many people have replied to me trying to insist that government and parliament mean the same thing. They do not.