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Good morning The publication yesterday of The Institute for Public Policy Research Report “The Generation Strain”, surely demands our attention. It illustrates how, for the first time by 2017, the number of older people in Britain is expected to outstrip the number of family members able to provide informal care for them. And, by way of responding effectively to the challenge which faces all of us, the Report then suggests that non-state networks of social care, including friends and neighbours, step in and do their bit. These networks can’t be ad hoc and random. They need to be capable of sustaining us through the inevitable changes as more people live longer. Just last week I attended a meeting at a warden assisted housing scheme for mainly elderly people living on their own in East London where a combination of central and local cuts in funding means that the on-site warden' hours will be reduced and they will no longer be on call. So the elderly people will be left to care for themselves for much of the time. Their concerns at the meeting were not in the least extravagant. But I tried to imagine how I would feel as dialling a call centre for help is not the same as the human touch. There are already many groups, including a wide range of faith-based organisations, doing tremendous work in providing friendship and support to elderly people who are without any kind of peer support. In the Christian tradition such social responsibility and pastoral care are rooted in the calling of each and every person to show their faith by loving their neighbour – with Jesus laying particular emphasis on those who are alone, poor, without family support. Whether religious or not - I believe that when “inverted childhood”, as Philip Larkin refers to old age, is affecting increasing numbers of people in the community it really is going to be more important than ever to make a proactive conscious decision to be a good neighbour to the nation’s elderly. This might then at least help to avoid the kind of loneliness, isolation and unhappiness, not to mention fear, which is increasingly and unfortunately associated with the process of getting older.