The Green Party has hit out after commissioners in Ramsey passed a vote of no confidence in one of their colleagues.

On Wednesday last week Lamara Craine was subject to what the party described as 'an inconceivable and concerning decision' by the other elected members of the local authority.

The party says that Ms Craine, the only female member of the commissioners, was 'put on trial by some of her male peers for making an impassioned call against reckless littering in the community of Ramsey'.

A statement from the party reads: 'The decision to lodge and pass a vote of no confidence in Ms Lamara Craine, for using, on a private Facebook profile, a swear word term to describe some members of Ramsey community who chose to litter and damage our natural environment, was a damning and deeply unfair persecution by the commissioners.

'The inequality and injustice of the commissioners’ vote was truly made stark when an amendment was voted down (6-4) that proposed to include any commissioner in the vote of no confidence who had been convicted of a criminal offence during their term as a commissioner.

'Therefore, in an incomprehensible decision, the commissioners decided to prioritise the unfair demonisation of an impassioned call to respect the natural environment in Ramsey, by its only female member, over actual criminal offences committed by commissioners.

'It is noted that a male commissioner at Ramsey Town Commissioners ironically pleaded guilty to an offence of depositing unlicensed waste in 2022, during his term as a commissioner.

'Seemingly, the message sent by this vote is that the commissioners implicitly condone such criminal acts whilst excoriating members who make lonely and impassioned calls to protect our natural environment and criticise those who would do it damage. An impossible moral double-standard, impossible to either comprehend or accept.'

The party doesn't name the commissioner in question. It was Wilf Young. Click here to read our coverage at the time.

The party says that the vote of the commissioners followed some media outlets running the story, reporting that Ms Craine had upset an unspecified number of people by use of a swear word to describe those littering in Ramsey.

Read the stories we featured about Ms Craine here, here and here.

The party's statement continues: 'The statement by Ms Craine, on a private social media page, was published by another in a public forum, triggering a response from some Isle of Man media outlets to publicise a screen shot of Ms Craine’s statement.

'In doing so, these media outlets apparently deemed the story important and of a universal concern.

'It is deeply unfortunate that the important issues Ms Craine was dealing with in her statement, such as the proliferation of waste from the littering of single use vapes, were not seen by those media outlets as more newsworthy than an impassioned call to a community in urgent need of addressing a waste crisis.'

The Green Party highlighted Ms Craine's past activism. including being part of a protest against elm trees being felled, a 'die-in' protest at Tynwald to highlight lack of action in the climate emergency and campaigning against the potential extraction of gas from Manx waters.

The party adds: 'The decision of some of the Isle of Man media to run the story and attempt follow-up to keep it running begs the question of whether a male politician in the same circumstances would suffer the same intense and incendiary scrutiny.'

While Isle of Man Today did run short reports about the issue, the story was not newsworthy enough to appear in any of Media Isle of Man's newspapers. The statement concludes: 'Ms Craine did not bully anyone or commit a criminal act. She swore in frustration in a message on a private social media page, triggering wide publicity and inquisition by some of her fellow Commissioners in Ramsey.

'This chain of events places a real concern as to the existence of an environment supportive to women in Isle of Man politics.

'It is noteworthy that a current team of academics is preparing a report for Tynwald on the barriers to women entering Isle of Man politics.'

Read a feature we recently published about the issue of women in politics here.