WITH a snap General Election on the way it’s time for the snap polls.

And the latest one released earlier this week made for grim reading for Labour in Wales, with the party reportedly on course to lose a whopping 10 MPs to the Tories - with both Newport seats among those at risk.

Not so long ago the thought of staunchly-Labour Newport, as well as other safe seats such as Bridgend, Wrexham and Cardiff South and Penarth, turning blue was unthinkable, so for it to be spoken of as something which could really happen shows just how much the political landscape has changed.

The idea of Labour stalwart Paul Flynn being turfed out of the seat he’s held since 1987 by a Conservative could be too much for some in Newport to bear.

Why this might happen is difficult to say - the divisiveness of Jeremy Corbyn as party leader no doubt plays a part in this, while explanation notes provided with the poll carried out by YouGov for Cardiff University’s Wales Governance Centre and ITV Cymru Wales suggest a large number of former Ukip voters have shifted to the Conservatives as a result of the party’s apparent commitment to ensuring Brexit goes ahead.

If the predictions of the poll bear fruit Wales would have more Tory MPs than Labour for the first time in more than 150 years, a genuine seismic shift in the world of politics.

But let’s just take a step back.

Not only is the election more than six weeks away - and if a week is a long time in politics, a month and a half is a lifetime - if the past couple of years have taught us anything its to take the polls with a very, very large pinch of salt.

Remember how the Conservatives definitely weren’t going to win a majority in 2015? And how Labour were going to be turfed out of the Senedd at last year’s Assembly election?

Not to mention the outcome of the EU referendum and last year’s US election, neither of which were predicted by the majority of pollsters.

Not to disparage the pollsters themselves - for the most part the people who put these polls together are far, far smarter than I am - but if the past few years have taught us anything its that no one has any idea what’s really going to happen until the results are in.

If this time last year you’d told me that in just 12 months time we’d be gearing up to leave the EU while President Trump tweeted furiously about whatever he watched on TV last night I’d have thought you were mad.

Either that or gone down the bookies.

So, to borrow an overplayed popular slogan, it’s probably best we keep calm and carry on until June 8 and we’ll see where we are then.

Even if where that is is a very different place.

* Today Prime Minister Theresa May popped over the Severn Bridge to Newport to visit a steel plant ahead of a campaign speech in Bridgend.

All the usual stuff we get before an election and a morning out of the office for yours truly, if nothing else.

Except the Argus wasn’t told she was coming or invited to join our friends in the Welsh media who tagged along.

The event was organised by the UK Conservative Party, but no one there has been able to give me a straight answer as to why we weren’t told it was happening.

Understandably, with an election on the way the party wanted the national media there to make sure the event got a bit of coverage in the evening news.

But when invitations were extended to other Wales-specific media outlets, it’s a bit of a slap in the face to see the Argus not invited to a visit by Prime Minister on our very doorstep. After all there’s no reason we should be kept away - if anything the more media present the better.

Let’s hope this is a one-off and next time Mrs May, or whoever is in residence at Number 10 after June 8, pops over the Severn Bridge we don’t hear about it on Twitter.

*A reminder that the Argus is running a local election hustings at the University of South Wales this Friday, April 28.

Representatives of all the major parties running candidates in the city on May 4 - Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, the Newport Independents Party, Plaid Cymru, Ukip and the Green Party, will be present to answer questions from the audience at the event, which will begin at 6.30pm.

I’ll be there too, but don’t let that put you off.

Tickets are free, but limited, and are available at eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-south-wales-argus-local-election-hustings-tickets-33706711682.