'Revolutionary' Bedford care home residents call for peace

The group at Elstow Manor Care Home on Bedford Road, Wixams, were challenged to swap making their traditional New Year's resolutions and come up with 'revolutions' instead.

Resident Graham Langton, aged 72,said: "We need to have people around the table, having open and transparent conversations about how we can work towards less war and poverty.”

Fellow resident Anne Poole agreed that we have a communication issue and believes that mobile phones and social media has not made things easy.

Anne, aged 89, said: “We need to improve the way we speak to one another; I would ban mobile phones. I think the way social media has grown so fast it has created a lot of problems and misinformation and poor communication is unsettling the world.”

Resident Joy Stallwood, aged 88, agreed that more could be done to tackle wars and work towards greater peace.

She said: “If we can communicate better and be more open, we can resolve some of this fighting which is resulting in such terror.”

Resident John Skevington, aged 87, agreed. He said: “We have to work towards peace, and we can only do this by getting around the table.”

Resident Val Hunt, aged 74, chipped in and believes people should be talking more to resolve their differences.”

And 82-year-old Jacqueline Fryer said she would definitely ban guns as a start to working towards more peace.

According to Wellbeing Coach Oliver Waddington, the discussion proved inspirational for everyone at Elstow Manor.

He said: "We have so much to learn from our older generations, and they have such good points about communication and the way people interact.”