Off comes the straitjacket

New Labour cabinet members must be under instructions to shed their jackets when addressing gatherings of any significance.

Lord Falconer is about as new Labour as they get.

So in his new role as Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs (otherwise known as the Lord Chancellor) his opening move when appearing this week for the first time before a House of Commons select committee was to get down to business and whip off his jacket.

You can't imagine Lord Irvine being so casual.

But then that's much of the point of Charlie Falconer - he ain't Derry Irvine.

While the old Lord Chancellor was a reformer, the new Lord Chancellor is setting out his stall as a revolutionary.

Before MPs this week, he focused mostly on the issue of the composition of the judiciary.

His thoughts on devising a career structure for judges, creating a younger and more diverse bench, are to be welcomed.

The existing monopoly of white male QCs in their 60s, who mostly attended a certain type of school and a certain type of university, should be broken.

Also taking shape was Lord Falconer's thinking on the replacement of the House of Lords judicial committee with a supreme court.

Some will suggest that the current model isn't broken and doesn't need fixing.

But completely separating the judiciary from the legislature must be right for a modern democracy.

We get the feeling that a shirt-sleeved Charlie Falconer is right for the task.