LOVE them or hate them, they're here to stay.

Winning seven seats in the Senedd in May and just a month later scoring a massive victory with the Brexit vote, Ukip can't be dismissed as a loony fringe party any more.

In a press conference today senior Plaid Cymru AM Simon Thomas claimed first minister Carwyn Jones had become "more concerned about Ukip votes in the South Wales Valleys than he is about the wellbeing of Wales".

Seemingly the only thing standing in the way of the party becoming a real force to be reckoned with is its tendency to get mixed up in internal bickering.

The party's four months in the Senedd have been marred by a row which saw the role of group leader stolen from underneath North Wales AM Nathan Gill, seen by many as the natural candidate for the post, by former MP and reality show star Neil Hamilton.

And Mr Gill left political commentators confused when he left the Senedd group to sit as an independent AM in August, but swore to remain an MEP for the party and leader of Ukip Wales.

Opinions vary on whether he is actually leader of party's Welsh branch any more, although the general consensus at this point seems to be that he isn't.

But Mr Hamilton has since struck a somewhat more conciliatory tone, suggesting unity, within the Senedd at least, might be on the cards after all.

And with council elections on the cards for next May we could be seeing a few more Kippers take up office before too long.

l As we all know, breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

And it's clear where Welsh Tory leader Andrew RT Davies' mind was while giving a speech at the party conference in Birmingham yesterday.

Although the script of his speech said "We will make Brexit a success", the AM, perhaps thinking about the bacon butty waiting for him after he exited the stage, scrambled the words and supplanted "Brexit" with "breakfast".

Despite having egg on his face after making an embarrassing hash brown of his moment in the spotlight, the Tory leader managed to save his own bacon by chuckling and blaming the autocue. Good thing too, or his political career might have been toast.

Of course, what remains to be seen is whether we'll be getting a hard boiled Brexit or soft boiled Brexit.

l Apologies your favourite politics column has been AWOL for the past couple of weeks - I've been on my holidays celebrating turning yet another year older.

Normal service now resumes.