Still, marginally better than designing your own robes after seeing a performance of Iolanthe - a Gilbert and Sullican farce - especially if you are a US Supreme Court Chief Justice ...

Wigs are timeless in prominent British institutions (well, at least they have a long lineage. This headline sort of reminds me of Hillary: Hillary Not Eager To Give Up Campaign. Thanks for the laugh, Josh.

I hate to side with a sniffy Englishman about anything, but damn, those are some cheap-ass sci-fi villain robes. Makes Chief Justice Rhenquist's Gilbert & Sullivan-inspired gold stripes look like the judicial class act of the century.

Back on this side of the pond, to heck with wigs. I want the Whigs back. Homesteads for families, national banking, and federal roads, heee-yah!

Care for some chips with that?

Lord Phillips, seen here preparing to blow up the planet Alderan.

Call the next defendant! (the court applauds the judge who bows and sits; the whole mood changes) Call the next defendant. The Honourable Mr Justice Kilbraken. (a very elderly judge in full robes comes into the dock) If I may charge you m'lud, you are charged m'lud that on the fourteenth day of June 1970, at the Central Criminal Court, you did commit acts likely to cause a breach of the peace. How plead you m'lud, guilty or not guilty?

Judge Kilbraken Not guilty. Case not proven. Court adjourned.

He hits the dock. Everyone gets up and starts walking out talking to each other.

Judge No, no, no, no, no, no, no. (they all stop, go back and sit down again) No, you're in the dock, m'lud.

Judge Kilbraken I'm a judge, m'lud.

Judge So am I, m'lud, so watch it.

Judge Kilbraken Hah! Call this a court.

All Call this a court. Call this a court..Call this a court.

Judge Shut up. Right now get on with the spiel.

Counsel M'lud, and my other lud, the prosecution will endeavour to show m'lud, that m'lud - ah, not you m'lud, that m'lud, m'lud, while passing sentence at the Central Criminal Court blotted his copy book. Call exhibit Q.

Judge Q?

Counsel Sorry did I say Q? I meant A. Sorry, call exhibit A.

Clerk Call exhibit A.

Two court ushers carry in a thing with a sheet over it. They pull off the sheet to reveal a very sexy girl in a provocative pose.

Counsel Exhibit A m'lud, Miss Rita Thang, an artist's model, Swedish accordion teacher and cane-chair sales lady, was found guilty under the Rude Behaviour Act in the accused's court. The accused, m'lud, sentenced her to be taken from this place and brought round to his place.

Second Counsel Objection, m'lud.

Judge Kilbraken Objection sustained.

Judge You shut up! Objection overruled.

Counsel The accused then commented on Miss Thang's bodily structure, made several not-at-all legal remarks on the subject of fun and then placed his robes over his head and began to emit low moans.

Judge Have you anything to say in your defense?

Judge Kilbraken I haven't had any for weeks.

Judge Oh no? What about that little number you've got tucked away in Belsize Park?

Judge Kilbraken Oh, I never!

Judge Oh no. Ho! Ho! Ho!

Judge Kilbraken All right then what about 8a Woodford Square?

Judge You say anything about that and I'll do you for treason.

Counsel M'lud if we could continue ...

Judge Kilbraken He's got a Chinese bit there.

Judge No, that's contempt of court.

Judge Kilbraken It was only a joke.

Judge Contempt of court. However, I'm not going to punish you, because we're so short of judges at the moment, what with all of them emigrating to South Africa. I'm going tomorrow; I've got my ticket. Get out there and get some decent sentencing done. Ooh, England makes you sick. Best I can manage here is life imprisonment. It's hardly worth coming in in the morning. Now, South Africa? You've got your cat of nine tails, you've got four death sentences a week, you've got cheap drinks, slave labour and a booming stock market. I'm off, I tell you. Yes, I'm up to here with probation and bleeding psychiatric reports. That's it, I'm off. That's it. Right. But I'm going to have one final fling before I leave, so I sentence you to be burnt at the stake.

My favorite is the sidebar story "Why no child is safe from sinister cult of 'Emo'" .

Seriously...those Brits need something better to do with their journalistic time.

I will say the new duds look better than those moth-balled, edifices of judicial jurisprudence and tradition. Every time I see those traditional robes I think of John Cleese in A Fish Called Wanda. Now there was a barrister.

In Canada we have robes but not wigs, for barristers.  There is a good reason for it: it equalises counsel.  I've been in motions courts, where counsel show up in cheap suits or expensive ones; some in leather, others in those Southern string ties; once or twice I've seen jeans, and then there was the intern show showed up with the designer label still on the sleeve ... you wear a robe - your uniform - and avoid all of that.

Plus, it sets the lawyers apart from the civvies, in case you want to use any for target practice.

At first I thought the new outfits might made them look like the Ood.  Whew.  The new robes do look a bit like something from a Doctor Who episode though.

Not being British, perhaps I have no standing to comment...but the wigs are pretty silly. I rather like the proposed new robes - it's a sudden jump from the 19th century to the 21st, that's all.