Don't agree with MtheGM, but am grateful for his opinion.
I don't think The Grocer was MacColl's best song by any means, but I think, like many political pieces, it served its purpose.
I once spent 6 months in Manchester Central Library poring over microfilm of old Chartist newspapers looking for songs for a project I was involved in.
Among several thousand, I don't think there was a single one among them that was singable, but I have no doubt that they served their purpose at the time they were made.
From conversations I had with some of Ewan's contemporaries, I gathered that he must have written many times the number that survived and went into print.
Wonder who would find a use for:

That lovely night, the night we met,
There were whistling bombs in the air.
No bankers dining at the Ritz,
And the refugees slept in Berkley Square.

I may be right, I may be wrong,
But the newspapers say it's no lie.
The rich folk's children sailed away,
And left all the workers' kids to die.

Certainly not deathless prose - an interesting peep at our past though!
"Give it rest, guys! "
Sorry Leeneia - while I realise Maggie didn't have it easy, what with having a crook for a son (who only managed to stay out of prison by grassing up his mates) and a best mate who turned out to be a mass murderer - but fair's fair - she screwed us so surely we're allowed a little snipe now and again.   
Jim Carroll