Just had this posted up on the Total Politics local government blog (although it was written a few days ago and so doesn't mention Trevor Phillips intervention on this issue or some of the rebuttals such as this from the Guardian's Michael White).
Obama might have shown than a black man can become president but over here the most basic rungs of local government appear to be out of reach to most minority ethnic candidates.
Harriet Harman this week pointed out that only around 150 out of 19,000 councillors across England are minority ethnic women. This is actually a fall on two years ago when the figure stood at 164.
It means minority ethnic women make up less than one per cent of all local authority representatives.
Sure there are all sorts of reasons for this beyond racism (women of all backgrounds often have to cope with the demands of caring for home, family and career while men concentrate on the latter).
But it's still a pathetic figure and it doesn't bode well if we are looking for a minority ethnic woman to fill senior local government or central government roles.
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