Vernon Bogdanor's important new book, The New British Constitution, points out that there has been no shortage of constitutional innovation in the past 12 years – from devolution to funding political parties. But this shows signs of running out of steam. The constitutional renewal bill, now becalmed in parliament, is a ragbag of issues.
韦农•波格丹诺(Vernon Bogdanor)在其最新力作《新英国宪法》(The New British Constitution)中指出，过去12年，从权力下放到政党融资，各种宪法创新层出不穷。但这种创新已显出失去动力的迹象。目前搁置于议会的宪法修正案，是各种问题的大杂烩。
We need to address electoral reform and reform of parliament. Two principles come to mind – the separation of powers and parliamentary sovereignty. The first has been adopted by many countries but the separation of executive, legislature and judiciary has been espoused most zealously by the US. The striking thing about the UK is how little we have adopted this principle. Before reform in 2005 we tolerated a lord chancellor who sought to be a minister, a judge and Speaker of the House of Lords.
我们需要处理选举改革与议会改革的问题。我想到了两条原则——权力分立与议会主权。许多国家都采纳了前者，但美国是行政、立法与司法权分离的最积极拥护者。英国的突出之处在于很少采纳这条原则。2005年改革之前，我们曾允许上议院大臣兼任内阁大臣、法官和上议院议长。
But the key area where the separation of powers is not observed is in the overlap of executive and legislature. The party that can command a majority in the House of Commons forms the government andrecruits about 100 MPs to staff it. This was for many years seen as a strength of the British constitution, what Walter Bagehot identified as the “efficient secret” or “the close union, the nearly complete fusion, of the executive and legislative powers”, with cabinet being responsible to parliament.
但没有权力分立的关键领域，是行政与立法的重叠。控制着下议院多数席位的政党组成政府，并聘用约100名议员为政府工作。多年来，这种做法一直被视为英国宪法的长处，沃尔特•白居特(Walter Bagehot)称其为“有效率的秘密”，或是“行政与立法权的紧密结合与近乎彻底的融合”，由内阁对议会负责。