In 1990, there was a big riot in Central London against a tax which Margaret Thatcher's government had tried to introduce, the Poll Tax. A left-wing group called Militant organized most of the protests against the tax, but it was horrified when things got out of control.The group's leaders, including Tommy Sheridan, said that they would identify rioters to the police. In Britain, this behavior is called 'grassing'. It's something one simply does not do: it's not cricket.

http://f.acetio.us/wildcat/w15-tsdc-critique.html

Anyway, twenty years later, Sheridan's karma caught up with him. He has been sent to prison for lying in court about going to orgies. Contra his dwindling band of moronic supporters, he wasn't prosecuted by the evil news barons for orgies. He wasn't prosecuted for being a socialist. He was prosecuted for perjury, which is a serious crime. Can you imagine a legal system which treats lying under oath as no big deal?

In an amusing irony, Sheridan accused a friend of being a 'grass' ('snitch' in American) for telling the truth about Sheridan's lies: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-11710677