LONDON — The newly elected speaker of the House of Commons has shattered fashion tradition: He wears long pants. And he doesn't wear a wig.
Michael Martin may be about 200 years late in catching up with male fashion, but his decision was the second blow this week to the tradition of wearing a bit of horsehair in Parliament or the courts.
The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, suggested in an interview published Tuesday that he was tired of wigs.
"I know there is a great affection for the traditions that we have," Woolf said. "But, equally, I know that wearing wigs, especially if they are spaniel-type wigs, enables us to be portrayed as out-of-touch, anachronistic dinosaurs — and I don't think that is helpful to public confidence."
The sight of a visibly balding man working as speaker naturally inspired comment in the press.
The Times calculated that Martin saved taxpayers $575 by dispensing with a wig, black stockings and silver-buckled shoes — all traditions for the speaker. However, he still will get a tailcoat, a gown with cape collar and an assortment of wing collars.
"Mr. Martin became the first male in the Commons to rid himself of a wig rather than acquire one," commented Frank Johnson, the Parliamentary sketch writer for The Daily Telegraph.
The Guardian wrote in an editorial: "And so, a mere 200 years after wig-wearing faded from the mainstream of public life, the classes that retained it — speakers of the Commons, Lord Chancellors, senior lawyers — look doomed very soon to join the wigless majority."
The shoulder-length speaker's wig was last seen in the House of Commons atop Bernard Weatherill, who retired in 1992. His successor, Betty Boothroyd, refused to wear a wig.
Lord Weatherill had hoped the new speaker would revert to tradition.
"The wig is terribly important because it draws attention to the office and not to the person," he said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph.
"Betty's got a fine head of hair. She was a supreme star and all honor to her, but I don't think the speaker should be the star. Parliament should be a forum, not a stage," he said.
Two years ago, the lord chancellor, Derry Irvine, won permission from the House of Lords to wear a normal suit when presiding.
"The wig weighs an absolute ton. It is very uncomfortable," Irvine had complained.
However, he still has to don the tights, breeches, wig and buckled shoes for formal occasions. Since 1998, though, he no is longer obliged to walk backward during the state opening of Parliament to spare the monarch a view of his backside.