ABSTRACT
Many people would say, usually without thinking, that Parliament needs ‘modernisation’ or ‘reform’. But these are words to be used with care. To the person speaking, they really mean no more than ‘change of which I approve’. After all, the ‘Balfour reforms’ of more than a century ago, which entrenched the government’s control over the business and time of the House of Commons, were hardly a milestone in the democratic accountability of the executive. And in the present debate over the role of Parliament, ‘modernisation’ and ‘reform’ mean different things to different people.
