Nigel a Bully?

I received this via a friend from Carol Gould:

There sat Ahmadinejad today, defaming Israel. What an irony that it it was two Anglo-Jews, Lord Triesman and Sir Nigel Sheinwald, who were so instrumental in negotiating the release of the fifteen sailors and Marines...
Carol

So, I said to myself, who are these men?

Here is one description, from the Guardian, naturally:-

Sir Nigel's reputation in Whitehall is of a bruiser and a bully, descriptions he detests. He sees himself as someone who asks hard questions. But the reputation persists. A London-based Middle East analyst yesterday recalled his first meeting with him in Downing Street as "a bruising encounter". The analyst said: "His first comment to me was 'Are you in favour of suicide bombers?'"

That's the charateristic of a "bully"? Dear me, this won't do at all.

Ah, this sounds more mainstream British:-

...he was head of press at the Foreign Office between 1995 and 1998 and as British ambassador to Brussels between 2000 and 2003 remember him as intellectually arrogant but genial. One recalled him shouting at him across a packed press conference about an article but still likes him: "He is a toff rather than a grandee."

He was educated at Harrow, but the county grammar, not the public school, a contemporary of Michael Portillo and Clive Anderson.

and

Weisglass' liaison at 10 Downing Street is Sir Nigel Sheinwald, the foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Tony Blair. Sheinwald, who as his name suggests is Jewish

The second person, Lord Treisman, was:

David Maxim Triesman, born on 30 October 1943, grew up in the north London Jewish community. He was educated at the Stationers' Company School, London, Essex University and King's College, Cambridge.

Well, well.