ONE special relationship that may not be long for this world is Our Man in Washington’s with the new administration. Former Foreign Office satrap Nigel Sheinwald has been caught out being most undiplomatic about the new super-hero in the White House. After the inauguration this week, the Ambassador to the United States was heard touring the studios saying nice things about Barack Obama and brushing off suggestions that at least some of the President’s men might take umbrage at his comments in a leaked despatch to London in which he described the then presidential candidate as aloof, insensitive and given to “sitting on the fence”. Spoiling Gordon Brown’s chances of being first European leader in line to shake hands with Obama would not go down well in Downing Street.
