Regardless of which party you supported, Friday night quite blatantly made political history. Especially considering Theresa May embarrassingly solid expectations for how the General Election would unfold. As the Exit Poll and then results started to roll in it became apparent that TV Presenters, politicians and the general public were equally surprised at the outcome. If nothing else, this was clear from Nick Clegg basically crying when he lost his seat.
It certainly wasn't the Tory landslide that most of us had accepted to be our fate.
Obviously there are various reasons for this but in my opinion there is one outstanding contributing factor. I say this with personal optimism but many people seem to agree that the winds of change are upon us. Corbyn defied all odds considering that 99% of British media were determined to smear him for everything from 'being a terrorist sympathiser' to the way he dresses. We have seen from the hugely increased majority won by Diane Abott too that the bigoted, biased power of the British mainstream media is losing its influence and the public are beginning to see through the trash they are usually force-fed.
With the help of an apparently indestructible Labour party, Corbyn changed has the face of British politics and I can only hope this is permanent. As many said on Friday, he has become a symbol of hope simply because he is an entirely new type of leader and people want this now more than ever due to the down right shamefully unstable recent period in our political sphere.
For the first time, we saw enormous growth in the turnout of voters aged 18-25 and as someone who works in a Students' Union and has helped to run our own registration/voting campaign over the last few weeks, I know for a fact this isn't without genuine passion. Older generations are far too quick to suggest that young people are simply 'lazy' or 'don't care about politics' but this flat out isn't true. As a member of this particular group I think I speak for many of us when I say, how are we meant to engage with politics when we are consistently pushed out of it, discouraged and belittled for simply trying to raise our voices and are regularly deemed unimportant?
Rising tuition fees, the reduction in job markets and the fact that we can now only dream of ever owning a house, amongst other factors, have time and time again shown us that our government couldn't care less about the fate of the younger generation. Meanwhile when we try to speak out in the form of protests and campaigns we get shut down.
But the turnout on Friday was no coincidence. Corbyn put in an enormous amount of effort to show young people that they matter; he became a voice of hope in a political environment where people felt disillusioned and tired of being forgotten. He actively encouraged the younger demographic to get involved and made it clear they are valued at least by himself. Now I'm not saying all young people support Corbyn, this is far from true, but, even those voting for another party were reminded that they deserve to be involved, simply by the weight of campaigning that reached their radars.
So despite the glimmer of hope stemming from May's failure to achieve the majority she assumed was easily hers, we have ended up in a less than ideal situation.
The DUP in my personal opinion make UKIP look tame, they are a party of homophobes, racists and dangerous misogynists who couldn't care less about the safety or lives of liberation groups. We run a major risk of them bringing out the more extreme side of the Tories and should prepare for a difficult next few months.
However, if what we are hearing is right, Corbyn's introduction of an entirely new era of politics won't be short lived. Just because he isn't PM doesn't mean he hasn't had an incredible and long lasting impact. Young people and people in general have woken up and realised that their voices should be valued, the public are grasping the fact that they can have influence on major issues regarding Brexit, the NHS or our education system. Two major protests are already taking place at Downing Street over the weekend and this time we won't take no for an answer, we have been living in a time of austerity politics for far too long.
Things clearly need to change and I know I'm not alone in thinking this; people are beginning to put their foot down and say enough is enough. So despite my major fears for a Tory/DUP coalition, I am incredibly excited to see the positive impact of a new meaning of 'people power'. We won't let them get away with any old policies anymore!