The Core City Conference is one of the highlights of the local government season. This year's conference in Liverpool was no exception. "National and international evidence suggests our only hope for the future is to embrace the talent and ambition diverse communities bring..." However what really sparked debate was a question on the issue of diversity, and how we can encourage this in the leadership of our regional capitals. Needless to say, this had all the middle-aged white men on the rostrum squirming. Now, as another middle-aged white man, I hesitate to cast judgment, but what was fascinating was the contrast between the evidence presented for future wellbeing of our core cities and the nature of the conference platform. National and international evidence suggests our only hope for the future is to embrace the talent and ambition diverse communities bring. Our universities are packed with ambitious and high-achieving women, one in five Indian men in the UK will go on to become doctors, and if you want to find a successful school just ask for the number of Chinese origin students in attendance. And yet none of this is yet reflected in our political and managerial leadership. I recently returned from Boston which was in the middle of a mayoral election campaign. One of the key issues was how the city leadership should reflect the diversity of that successful city. The response of all candidates was about the rate of change not whether it should happen. One of the key competitive advantages of our cities over European rivals is that we do have hugely diverse and international communities who can prosper and provide the vital skills of innovation and entrepreneurship. This is not a simple issue. As several contributors at the conference pointed out there are serious and growing issues of unemployed and unskilled men in our cities missing out on jobs and training, and becoming institutionally unemployable. Well maybe that's one of a number of issues that new women leaders can resolve. Paul Wheeler is director of the Political Skills Forum.
