THE POLITICS FILE: May needs to build bridges - and quickly

Which would be fine, except with less than 24 hours to go a new government still hasn’t been formed.

It’s entirely possible that as I write the final touches to the oft-mooted Conservative-DUP coalition are being put together and government officials are just making sure all the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed before making an official announcement.

But slightly more worrying is the prospect that a full agreement hasn’t been reached.

Having already been delayed, it seems almost unthinkable that the Queen’s Speech will be pushed back again, so it looks like it’s happening come hell or high water.

And this could have some very serious ramifications.

A hastily put-together agreement between two parties who don’t really agree on much at all would hardly bode well for the future of Parliament and its ability to actually do anything of consequence, not to mention making the dreaded prospect of another General Election much more likely.

Then again, I know I wasn’t alone in predicting the 2010 Tory-Lib Dem coalition wouldn’t last terribly long, and somehow that managed to hold out for a full five years., albeit with disastrous consequences for Nick Clegg’s

But maybe a surprise is on the cards and we’re not in for a Tory-DUP coalition after all.

Last week there were suggestions some senior Lib Dem figures had held meetings with government ministers.

Suddenly Tim Farron’s resignation makes a lot more sense, although I should add the rumours have been strenuously denied by the Lib Dems.

But they would say that, wouldn’t they.

Either way, that strong and stable government Mrs May was so keen on telling us we’d get after the election is a distant memory.

l Theresa May’s commitment to completely scrap tolls on the Severn bridges ahead of the election was welcomed with calls of “about time” by basically everyone and their dog.

With Labour and most other parties having long campaigned for the charges to be abolished, it seemed a forgone conclusion they’ll be gone no matter who won on June 8.

But does the hung Parliament we ended up with put this in doubt?

At the end of last week the Argus Monmouth MP David Davies told me he expected the tolls to be scrapped at the end of 2018 – later than previously expected, with it generally expected to be happening around the start of the 2018-2019 financial year in April.

But that’s all up the air with the uncertain election result.

While it seems unlikely the DUP, or whoever the Tories ultimately decide to get in bed with, would demand the pledge should be scrapped, the cost implications of some of the things the Conservative ministers hadn’t planned for may leave a black hole – the kind of hole which could be filled nicely with income from some bridge tolls.

I hope I’m wrong and within a year or so we can breeze over to Bristol and back without paying a penny. But these are uncertain times.

Watch this space.

* Congratulations to Newport’s own Debbie Wilcox, who last year became the first-ever female leader of Newport City Council, and now is set to be the first women to take up leadership of the Welsh Local Government Association.

This is yet another step up for Councillor Wilcox, who has become an increasingly influential figure within the Welsh Labour party, and went down a storm at the party’s spring conference a few months back.

In a party not exactly overflowing with high-profile women, Cllr Wilcox, who was first elected to the council in 2004, could well prove to be a valuable asset to Labour who, some could argue, is being largely under-utilised at the moment.

* Remember Ed Miliband?

A couple of years ago he was battling to become prime minister.

While I can’t imagine anyone now or then could reasonably argue it was anything other than a losing battle, that is a fairly high position to be holding in British politics.

Two years on he was on BBC Radio Two yesterday talking about different types of toilets.

In all honesty that’s probably much more fun than being Labour leader.