Hmm, well unlike in the US the government can't tread all over us, there's the odd case of pressure groups like animal rights campaigners getting this or that thing banned, and don't try to own a car - this country persecutes the motorist like Bush persecute free thinkers. But for the most part the government can't interfere too much with the average person, they always hold referendums for everything out of a paralysing fear of losing elections, technically the government can make or unmake any law as they see fit - one of the more absurd examples I remember in my lectures is they could make it illegal to smoke in Paris - completely pointless and unenforceable but they could pass an act like that, the only check on the British govt. is that if they upset public opinion everyone will do a protest vote at the next election and kick them out - like what happened to the Conservatives in the early 90s.
P.S. It's not the English political system, it's the British one, the Westminster Parliament legislates for the whole country, though they've delegated some small authority to the Northern Ireland Parliament, the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly, but that's only in minor unimportant areas of law and those areas are far from autonomous.