IT'S hard not to feel a bit sorry for Theresa May.

Coming off a disastrous set of losses in a completely unnecessary General Election, the prime minister has been facing her party at the Conservatives' annual conference.

But all the discussion both from within the party itself and outside has been around how long she's got left in the job just a year and change after stepping into David Cameron's shoes, and who will replace her at Number 10.

Will it be Brexit secretary David Davis, or perhaps every young Tory's favourite politician Jacob Rees-Mogg? Or has Boris' time to shine has come at last?

While cabinet members, MPs and party members have at least made a show of rallying behind the prime minister, polls have shown few have faith in her to lead them into another election.

And this seems to have had an impact on the party as a whole, with this week's conference in Manchester reportedly relatively poorly-attended, with Newport mayor David Fouweather spotted on Channel 4 News earlier this week saying how successful the event was - while sitting in front of a largely-empty auditorium. Whoops.

(Cllr Fouweather was, of course, attending the conference as a private party member rather than in his capacity as mayor).

Unfortunately none of this is terribly surprising given the result of June's General Election, the blame for which falls entirely at Mrs May's feet.

With Brexit mid-swing it seems unlikely she'll leave before that's over and done with, and doing so would be potentially disastrous for an already-uncertain process, but after that it seems largely inevitable she'll quietly leave Number 10 and go down as one of our less glorious leaders.

Meanwhile Jeremy Corbyn, on the other hand, must be feeling invincible following a remarkable transformation from the leader no one really seemed to want, to the man who is apparently leading Labour into a new golden age while simultaneously paving the streets with gold and giving everyone a puppy.

Perhaps the key to all this is the youth vote.

Mr Corbyn reportedly has a wide base of support among young people, which has only got bigger in the wake of the Brexit vote, while the Tories have traditionally struggled with attracting younger people, with the current state of affairs reportedly causing the party real worries.

It's unlikely the utterly baffling site of perpetually outspoken Katie Hopkins turning up at the party conference in a wedding dress for reasons no one seems to have been able to properly explain will have helped matters.

If there was another election tomorrow the Conservatives could face a disaster of 1997 proportions, and they've got a very steep hill to climb to make sure the next election - which might not be too far off - isn't a total whitewash.

  •  In Cardiff Bay, Carwyn Jones' Labour government was due to unveil its draft budget for the 2018-2019 financial year yesterday afternoon, with details elsewhere in this very publication.

It's slightly more significant than normal given it contains tax-raising powers, albeit limited ones, for the first time since the dawn of devolution.

But perhaps more interesting from a political standpoint is Labour's deal with Plaid Cymru, through with Plaid has agreed to abstain on the budget - effectively guaranteeing it will be pushed through in the Senedd - in exchange for commitments worth £210 million over two years.

This effectively means the Tories and Ukip, along with the three Independent AMs, can huff and puff as much as they want when the budget comes up for debate, but have absolutely no power to affect change. Good for Labour and, to an extent at least, for Plaid, but maybe less so for democracy.

While Labour will certainly make a show of engaging over the draft and may well actually make some changes following consultation, ultimately the budget revealed tomorrow, warts and all, could be the one brought in April next year.

Democracy in action.

  •  Also in the past week Henry Bolton was elected the new leader of Ukip, to resounding cries of "who?"

The former soldier, who also, somewhat ironically, ran for Parliament for the Liberal Democrats in 2005, has a decent amount of work to get stuck into convincing people the party is still relevant following the Brexit vote.

But he won't have to do much to be one of the more long-serving leaders. His predecessor Paul Nuttall lasted eight months before quitting following June's General Election, and his forerunner Diane James quit after less than three weeks in the role last year.

So if Mr Bolton is still in the role in June next year he'll have done well.