A number of TWN readers and I recently received an email note from the British Embassy in Washington notifying us that an "embassy blog" was being conceived and wanted to ask us our thoughts on the enterprise. I wrote back right away saying cheers, tally-ho, and all that, great idea, a big bold move forward. You get it.

After all, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband is already blogging (see his latest post on Sudan and Darfur) and the new Ambassador Nigel Sheinwald seems far more entrepreneurial in his political relationship building than some who have preceded him in his grand home. So this could be very cool.

But then a friend wrote to me and said regarding the Embassy note:

Unintential Comedy. Should be read with the accent of John Cleese from Monty Python.

I read that on a plane flying home from China and laughed for about an hour. I couldn't stop.

So read this with Cleese in your ear:

Dear Sir or Madam:

We're in the process of setting up a British Embassy blog. We plan to provide thoughtful analysis of foreign affairs from a British perspective in a concise and plainspoken manner. I'm wondering if you wouldn't mind responding to the following questions in order to make this venture more worthwhile.

~ Are you a blogger?

~ Do you read blogs?

~ If so, which ones?

~ Do you ever comment on a blog?

~ Do you prefer a group blog on many subjects or an individual blog on one subject?

~ Are you interested in reading a British Embassy blog?

~ If so, what topics would you like to see covered?

~ Would you participate by posting comments?

And. . .thank you so much for your help.

So I vote for the Brits to add to their growing blog empire -- but perhaps with at least a little bit of John Cleese video and sound to, you know, sex it up.

-- Steve Clemons