Ironically enough, "The Grocer" was actually the political nickname of Margaret Thatcher's worst enemy in the House of Commons, her predecessor as leader of the Conservative Party, one Edward Heath, MBE, MP.

The epithet was awarded by Enoch Powell who described Heath's ambitions as leading him to behave "like some shoddy grocer" who would sell his own country - with the UK joining the then European Economic Community - in order to increase his own political power.