By Nick Assinder BBC News Online political correspondent

Lord Falconer kept his cool

Then again, Lord Falconer has a build and demeanour that allows him always to look cheerful and relaxed.

In a parallel universe - and if he was from another class - you could picture him as a cheeky chappie standup comic.

"Here's another one, here's another one, those high court judges eh, what are they like, poncing about in wigs and stockings all day eh, eh."

Back in our own dimension, however, Tony's pal is one of the elite few who, as the temporary Lord Chancellor, has permission to ponce about in a wig and tights, even if he chooses not to do so.

He is temporary because the prime minister has decided to abolish his job, kick the law lords out of the upper house of parliament and create a new supreme court.

Final decision

Lord Falconer is quite happy with all this, of course. He wouldn't be where he is today if he wasn't.

So he remained cheery and unruffled when quizzed by the Commons constitutional affairs committee about the government's plans to scrap centuries of tradition.

He became a little more twitchy, however, when questioned about the building the new supreme court should be housed in.

He was far from flustered when urged to delay the reforms to give the government more time to take account of the many objections.

And he persistently refused to break into a sweat when he explained why the new independent judicial appointments commission should only be allowed to recommend who should become a judge - leaving it to the executive (the prime minister to you and me) to take the final decision.

He even appeared relaxed about the possibility that the commission could set targets for the number of women and ethnic minority judges there should be.

Indeed, he said he hoped the commission would take a "non-bland" approach to populating the supreme court.

Past history

His entire demeanour was that of a man who, while facing serious and widespread opposition to the proposals - which came in the prime minister's infamous "botched reshuffle" last year - couldn't see what all the fuss was about.

He became a little more twitchy, however, when questioned about the building the new supreme court should be housed in.

The past history of creating homes for other grand bodies has not been good. Just ask the Scottish parliament.

It needed to be "appropriate and suitably prestigious," he said. Of course.

And the government already had a number of proposals under active consideration.

But, if the committee didn't mind too much, he would rather not have to keep telling them in public what was going on.

Commercial confidentiality and all that, he quickly added. And that was that.

But one could not help but be left with the lingering suspicion that, despite all the sanguinity, this is still an issue that is causing the last ever Lord Chancellor at least some concern.