Latest statistics reveal that councils are still dominated by white, middle-class, middle-aged men. But is this such a bad thing? asks Claire Fox
Look around the council chamber and apparently, it looks like an episode of TV's Grumpy Old Men.
Yet another census has shown that local councillors are getting on a bit – the average age is 58, with only 0.3% under the age of 25, and only 29% women (The MJ, 8 February).
Even worse – after all those diversity initiatives – is that councils look ‘hideously white' – to quote ex-BBC DG, Greg Dyke – 96% of British councillors are white, and there is only one Muslim group leader in England, Mehboob Khan, who heads Kirklees MBC.
So, minister Ruth Kelly has sprung into action. Well, she's set up yet another commission.  
Dame Jane Roberts, former leader of Camden LBC, has been charged with coming up with ideas to improve the range of people of all ages and backgrounds standing for office.  But is this the right approach to the crisis in recruitment and retention of elected members?
First, why is this packaged as a diversity issue? Of course, it's always worrying if institutions aren't attracting new blood. But this is a general problem.
Let's be honest. Politics has lost its lustre for most people, regardless of age or ethnicity. One problem is that the traditional attraction of political office was a commitment to political ideals. Would anyone with strong political convictions queue up to represent today's ideology-lite, PR-heavy parties, which trumpet policies one day and dump them the next?
More importantly, should we just accept the premise that a council needs to reflect the demographic mix of its community in order to represent people democratically?  This approach splits communities into identity groups and implies that, for example, Muslims or gay people are not adequately represented unless they have Islamic or homosexual councillors in office. This assumption depoliticises local politics even further.
The marginalisation of politics is already happening at a national level. Amusingly, I was told by one Tory A-list candidate that he was selected with little scrutiny because he is twentysomething and gay.
The selectors forgot to ask him his views. Had they, they would have discovered he's a rabid Thatcherite who is contemptuous of the Cameroon tendency. 
Meanwhile, a black woman Labour Party activist I know had expected a fight for a safe seat, since she is Old Labour. She was dismayed to realise she was given an easy ride because her skin colour and gender ticked the right boxes.
Ironically, the emphasis on identity rather than political beliefs is likely to deter people from standing for office. The pressure of ‘representing' an entire ethnic group can be a poisoned chalice. 
Do all gay men agree on PFI, or city academies? What is the Sikh position on Surestart? Too easily, these elected members can be perceived as ‘single-issue councillors', and marginalised from universal issues. This reinforces the trend towards ‘parallel lives' that Ms Kelly herself was so keen to challenge when she launched another of her commissions, headed up by Darra Singh, chief executive of Ealing BC.
But what hope of ‘common values' or ‘community cohesion' when identity trumps politics? This can only encourage different ethnic or religious groups to believe they are different from each other, requiring special representation.
In the context of today's concerns about youth being attracted to radical Islam, the very suggestion that young British Asians are not represented unless there are more Muslim councillors naturalises the idea that these young people are separate from the rest of society. We imply they are an alien breed and white politicians can't talk to them without interpreters.
What young people from all backgrounds need, what we all need, are local politicians who are passionately committed to changing the world for the better.
Do we really imagine the best and brightest of future generations will be inspired by a rainbow alliance of clones from all political parties who parrot the latest orthodoxy, such as diversity-babble? Give me a bunch of grizzly white old men with some interesting ideas, passionate politics and critical faculties any day.
Claire Fox is director of the Institute of Ideas