This is just the start. Tonight’s vote was a terrible blow to our generation – to our country’s future. Our response may not have succeeded in preventing it. But we have woken Britain from her slumber. And that is a mighty feat. And because of that, tomorrow, the struggle continues.

The struggle continues because the attacks will continue. The Educational Maintenance Allowance has not yet been removed. And so we must defend it. University funding has not yet been cut. And so we must secure it. And these fees have not yet been signed into law. And so we can still stop them.

And the assault on the young and the poor doesn’t stop at the gates of our schools and our universities. Massive job cuts are hitting under 25s hardest. And as a generation is thrown onto the dole queue, the dole itself is being slashed and housing benefit sliced. And under 35s are taking the biggest portion of that, because we’ve committed the crime of being young under Cameron’s Conservatives.

And at the same time, we see youth centres decimated, school sports slashed, and the privatisation of under 18 education. And we are being forced to witness an historic failure to face the housing crisis which will make millions sick this winter, the bonfire of talent that comes with mass unemployment, and the climate crisis which endangers all we will build in our lifetimes.

And it’s not just the young who are being punished. It is women, disabled people, the sick, and anyone who can’t find a job. So if the hashtag of our uprising so far has been #solidarity then we must remember what that truly means. Because these people are our brothers and sisters and our neighbours and our grandparents and our friends.

And we don’t know what the government has in store for us next year, or the year after.

This is just the beginning, because we have lost a battle, but there’s a war we’re winning. The marches against the invasion of Iraq didn’t stop the bombing of Baghdad. But it may have prevented war with Iran and Syria. We have no idea what would have been next in the government’s drive to sell Britain to the highest bidder. But whatever it was, they’ll think twice. They thought we would be passive. They were wrong.

We didn’t stop the vote passing tonight. But that’s ok. Because this is just the beginning. We’re just getting started. And now that our alienated generation has woken from it’s slumber, now that our muscles are flexed, who knows what we can do next.