Welcome to Daily View on this, Independence Day in Croatia, the anniversary of the death of German  Bundeskanzler Willy Brandt, and the birthday of DJ Q Ball from the Bloodhound Gang. So, while he’s doing it like they do on the Discovery Channel, let’s get on with our selections.

Two big news stories

Ex-army chief General Sir Richard Dannatt to advise Tories on defence (Guardian)

David Cameron will […] announce that ex-army chief General Sir Richard Dannatt is to become an adviser to the party on defence. […]

The announcement was almost immediately undermined by an embarrassing frontbench gaffe when Chris Grayling, the shadow home secretary, appeared to mistakenly believe Dannatt was to advise the Labour government, rather than Cameron.

Whoops.

Royal Mail strike set to see postal services grind to a halt (Telegraph)

The results from a ballot of 121,000 postmen, delivery drivers and delivery office workers will be announced by the Communication Workers Union on Thursday afternoon.
Although the results are closely guarded, union sources said they expected strong backing for their call for a national stoppage.

Two must-read blog posts

Jewish Letter to Cameron (Stephen’s Linlithgow Journal)

Yesterday I covered the anti-homophobes letter from amongst others Stephen Fry, Partick Stewart, Eddie Izzard and Jo Brand. Today there is news that the he president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Vivian Wineman, has also sent a letter to the Conservative leader over his alliance with far-right groups in Poland and Latvia.

Blair for President? (Chris Davies MEP)

Chris looks at what the post of the President of the Council of Ministers actually entails.

The reality is that it amounts to no more than than being chairman of the European Council, the gathering of the 27 Prime Ministers. The holder of the post will sit alongside whoever is Prime Minister of the country holding the EU presidency, a role that rotates every six months. No job description has been prepared and there are plenty of Prime Ministers who want to keep it strictly limited.