yes, that is a very amusing comment.
I was active in 1980 and am still active, performing at clubs and festivals in the uk, however the amount of people still doing that are not that many.
37 years is a long stint,
in my opinion, the uk folk scene has sadly incorporated a lot of the worst aspects of the ukpop music scene., too much about form hype and promotion and not enough about content.
there is in my opinion no singer songwriter of the calibre of MacColl, there are some that have written a couple of good songs, but they are light wight[ imo] in comparison.
I did not particularly like Ewan, and I   also think that the policy at the singers club was a curates egg.
but I would recommend any young aspiring performer to study his song writing his song wrting technique and his attitude to performing, I feel the uk folk scene could do with him right now.