Noah Dougherty, 16, is a student at Cirencester College and hopes to become a journalist. He lives in Stroud.

BREXIT negotiations start in just a few days and they will have a huge effect on the lives of young people such as myself.

The outcome of these negotiations will also undoubtedly affect people living here in the UK, UK citizens living elsewhere in Europe, and our public services such as the NHS.

And our clearly unstable government has emerged from a ‘Brexit election’ in a worse state than it entered it.

With a 68.7 per cent turnout, the highest since 1997, it’s clear that young people have played a substantial role in this unexpected result.

Unfortunately, I am not yet old enough to vote however I am really looking forward to the responsibility.

However, it surprises, and saddens me, that there are many 18-24 (and lots of other people) who believe that their vote won’t make a difference.

But there just might be reason behind that.

The first past the post system doesn’t always give a fair representation of what the majority of people want.

For example, the Conservatives won every single seat in Cornwall despite having less than half of the votes (152,428 vs 161,928).

Surely, if you want a fair system such as certain types of proportional representation, The Conservatives would have a little less than half the seats with the other parties sharing the rest.

Also, with 500,000 votes, The Green Party ended up with one seat while the DUP, now arguably the second most powerful party in the UK, had 200,000 fewer votes and won 10 seats.

To me, this needs to change. I think a new voting system, once understood by the public, would encourage more people to vote which will in itself provide a fair outcome.

Despite this, I really enjoyed the election and all the reaction to it.

I think that many other young people were, like me, drawn into the campaign by Jeremy Corbyn.

He seems to have really strong values and my friends and I have talked at length about how that is particularly appealing and how good, shared values probably come before policies in terms of relating to an MP.

I think the fact he was so clearly the underdog with a lot of media pressure made his rise even more impressive and therefore, made him even more likeable.

Aside from Corbyn involving young people, I think politics should be taught and talked about more in school and college.

This will allow young people to understand the importance of voting and the difference they can make.

I think everyone is aware that this isn’t a particularly good outcome for any of the parties (except perhaps the DUP) however there are a few positives.

Most notably the young people voting, and voting clearly in favour of one party.

Hopefully, this will be an upward trend with a constant increase in voting numbers amongst young people as well as everyone else.

Well done young people!