Britain is a parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarch—Queen Elizabeth II—as head of State. In theory, the constitution of the country has three branches: Parliament, which makes the laws, the Government, which ‘execute’ laws, and the law courts, which interpret laws. Although the Queen is officially the head of all those branches, she has little direct power.
英国实施议会民主制，国家首脑是法定君主伊利莎白二世。理论上来说，英国政府体系由三个分支组成：议会，制订法律；政府，“执行”法律；法庭，解释法律。尽管女王是三个分支的官方领袖，她却只有很少的直接权力。
Parliament has two parts: the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Members of the House of Commons are known as MPs.
The government is led by the Prime Minister, who is usually the leader of the majority party in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister is advised by a Cabinet of about twenty other ministers. The current Prime Minister of the U.K. is Tony Blair.
议会由两部分组成：下议院和上议院。下议院的议员被称为MP。
政府由首相领导，他通常是下议院的多数党领袖。一个由大约二十位部长组成的内阁协助首相进行管理。英国现任首相是托尼·布莱尔。
The Cabinet内阁
The leader of the party which wins the most seats in the General Election becomes the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister chooses a committee of ministers called The Cabinet, which is made up a selection of senior MPs from the House of Commons and some members of the House of Lords.
The Cabinet runs the country. Each of the ministers is responsible for a government department, for instance, the Secretary of State for Education and Science is responsible for all the schools, universities and teachers in Britain.
The cabinet meets at the Prime Minister’s house. The Cabinet works as a team and all ministers must accept the decision of the ‘group’. The team of ministers must always agree in public because they are collectively responsible for any decision they make. If a minister cannot agree with all the others, he usually resigns from the cabinet. Cabinet meetings are held in private and the details must remain secret for at least 30 years. It has been argued that Margaret Thatcher tried to change the style of her cabinet and she was forced to resign when the other ministers could not agree with her.
Cabinet ministers cannot, however, do as they please. They are responsible to Parliament and must answer questions from backbenchers in the House of Commons. Even the Prime Minister must answer questions every Tuesday and Thursday in the Commons—this is called Prime Minister’s Question Time and can be one of the most interesting discussion in British politics. Everyone wants to know what has been decided behind the closed doors of the Cabinet Room!
在大选中赢得多数席位的政党领袖当选为首相。首相组织一个由部长组成的机构—内阁。内阁通常包括下议院的部分MP和上议院的某些议员。
国家由内阁来管理。每位部长负责一个政府部门。譬如，教育部长负责管理英国所有的学校，大学和教师。
内阁在首相的官邸聚头。内阁作为一个团队出现，所有的部长必须接受团队的决定。部长们必须在公众场合表现一致，因为他们要对团队的决定负责。如果某位部长不同意其他部长的决定，他通常会辞职。内阁的会议高度保密，其中的内容要至少保密30年。据说，玛格利特·撒彻尔试图改变内阁的工作方式，引起了其他部长的不同意见而被迫辞职。
然而内阁部长们并不能随心所欲！他们要对议会负责，必须接受众议院议员的质询。即使是部长也必须要在每周二和周四去众议院回答提问—这被称作部长时间，是英国政界最有趣的谈资之一。每个人都想知道在紧闭的门窗里面，内阁做了什么决定！
Queen Elizabeth II was crowned at Westminster Abbey on 2 June, 1953, sixteen months after her accession to the throne on 6 February 1952. It was the first coronation ever to be shown on television.
伊利莎白二世1952年2月6日继承王位，16个月后于1953年6月2日在威斯敏斯特加冕。这是第一个电视直播的加冕礼。
Today, known as a “constitutional monarch”, Queen Elizabeth II is no longer responsible for governing the country, but she carries out a great many important tasks on behalf of the nation.
现在，伊利莎白二世被成为“立宪君主”，尽管她不再管理国家，她还是要代表国家承担许多重要事务。
The Queen has both the right and the duty to offer advice to the government. She has to approve all new laws that Parliament wishes to make, and meets regularly with the Prime Minister to discuss the government’s plans. She also carries out similar tasks for the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh and Northern Irish Assemblies.
女王有权利和义务给政府提建议。她要通过议会将要制订的一切法律，与首相会面讨论政府计划。她对苏格兰议会，威尔士以及北爱尔兰议会都要行使相似的职责。
She must read and, if necessary, sign the documents and reports from government ministers and Commonwealth officials.
她得阅读，如果有必要的话，还要签署政府部长们和英联邦官员们的文件。
As Head of State, the Queen goes on official State Visits abroad. She also invites other world leaders to come to the United Kingdom.
作为政府首脑，女王需到国外作官方访问。她也邀请其他国家的领导来英国。
The Queen is also Head of the Armed Forces. She is the only person who can declare when the country is at war and when a war is over, although she must take advice from her government about it first.
女王还是军队的领袖。她是唯一能够宣布国家是处于战争状态以及战争结束时间的人，尽管在此之前她必须征询政府的意见。
The Queen also represents the nation at times of great celebration or sorrow. One example of this is the Remembrance Day ceremony at the Cenotaph monument in Whitehall. The Queen lays a wreath there each year to honour the members of the armed forces who have died fighting for their nation.
女王在庆典或者悲痛时刻代表国家出现。举个例子，在白厅西诺托夫纪念碑举行的纪念日活动，女王每年都要在哪儿放花环来荣耀那些为了国家而牺牲的士兵。
Alongside her other duties, the Queen spends a huge amount of time traveling around the country visiting hospitals, schools, factories and other places and organizations.
除了这些以外，女王还要大量的时间在国家内部周游，参观医院、学校、工厂以及其他的地方和机构。
参考资料：http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page1.asp