Don’t panic! Today is Towel Day.

Seventy years ago today, the Battle of Dunkirk began. On this day in 1967, Celtic FC became the first British team to win the European Cup, beating Inter Milan 2–1 in Lisbon.

Perfect Housewife Anthea Turner is 50 today, joining birthday boys Julian Clary (51) and Paul Weller (52) in a sixth decade.

2 big news stories

Poll shows broad support for coalition
The Guardian reports its ICM poll,  which shows broad support for the coalition government.

Support for [the Liberal Democrats] has also dropped three percentage points since the general election, to 21% – although that remains higher than in many pre-election ICM polls.

almost a fifth of those who backed the party this month saying they might be less likely to do so in the future … a quarter say it will actually make them more likely to vote Lib Dem.

The Times prepares to erect web site paywall
As Rupert Murdoch prepares to erect a paywall around his Times empire, the paper launches its new web site.  Rory Cellan-Jones  sees one advantage to the new sites:

… as comments will now be by named readers, there will be an end to the tedious anonymous ranting that plagues many news sites.

2 blog posts worth a read

Football, supporters’ trusts and the Big Society
As a football supporter myself, I was as pleased as Jonathan Calder to see the coalition government’s encouragement for the role of supporters’ trusts in the Beautiful Game. Over at Liberal England, Jonathan  draws attention to a part of the coalition agreement which states; ‘We will encourage the reform of football governance rules to support the co-operative ownership of football clubs by supporters.’ A very good thing.

Plaid Cymru MP confused again
For those of us who admit to finding certain aspects of the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales rather  confusing, it is good to find that even their own members sometimes can’t keep up. Peter Black AM points out how Plaid Cymru MP, Hywel Williams is in a spin over the end of HIPs and the devolution of housing policy.

That’s all for today – a day when it really should be so long and thanks for all the fish.