What the IMDb blurb for this Episode as 'Ironic' is somewhat stronger than that.
In the original 1st Series The Magnificent 7 decamp to Germany, under PM Maggie Thatcher to find work.
'Ironically' the Tories got elected under a, banner advertising slogan 'Labour isn't working'.
The 'Irony' being in the words of Tory hatchet man Norman Tebbit, "If you want a job be prepared to travel to it, On your bike'.
Of course the Likely Lads weren't exactly expecting to have to virtually emigrate to get one.
Britain was now in Europe and they ended up helping, to build the German 'Economic Miracle'.
Conservative politicians were continually attacking British workers and holding up, the German counterparts for their "Hard Work" in rebuilding the country.
Whereas the German economic story was rather more nuanced, for underpinning their system was what were known as the 'Guest Workers'.
There were low skilled work that employers, couldn't get Germans to do because of low wages.
So they employed labour from, places further afield like Eastern Europe and Turkey.
The 7 thought they were the European under class as Oz remarked of the accommodation, of a manky hut being like "Stalag 17".
But they found out that it was actually the Turks on the site, who were being treated the worst of all the workers.
And Turkey is the one country that the European community, don't want in their Christian club under any circumstances.
Now in this series are the circumstances really that different for the lads?
Barry likes to think that he's better off now because of his business acumen, which proves "he is no longer a radish". But in reality he is still the lemon having a woman rapping him around her little finger, and he actually believes that she wants him.
In Germany Neville was living on naff all in a hut while sending the bulk home, to the misses for the family. While she didn't believe him preferring the tales her girlfriends conjured up, of him living the life of Reilly while sending her naff all.
Now he and the misses are in business together but up to their neck in hock, desperately trying to conn the bank into being lenient with their overdraft.
Dennis like Nev went to Germany for the same economic reasons, except for Den his wife played him for a fool. She strung him along through her divorce and, then reconciliation when she thought she'd lost a soft touch. But his problems had more chapters to run, and now he is at his lowest ebb driving taxis on the "Graveyard Shift".
Moxie always seemed dogged by misfortune and the old bill but he certainly could never have guessed, that he would get the offer he couldn't refuse of being a coppers nark?
Oz the mover and shaker businessman hardly no his "Business yous canner refuse", is in reality much more like the old Oz than the new reformed one.
Why because his business partner is one of the few tycoon 'High Flyers', actually found out and they make each other's acquaintance in the nick.
Jeffrey Grainger is typically slippery with of course no funds, of his own to invest in his brilliant business venture.
No what he really needs are gullible mugs who can't see further, than the neon lights of £ signs flashing in their eyes.
Oz thinking he has hit on a virtual gold mine tries to entice his mates with "nay bother lads we're the Contractors on this job, not the labourers".
But for the "lads" to make their pile, who are the labourers that will have to do the hard graft?
Any principles they may have previously harboured are now, likely to be well and truly torched in "these changing times".
As the 7 discard hard hats to become Gaffers employing a Gang Master from "Macedonia", importing his labour from a former European war zone.
The Magnificent 7 are now helping to fund and perpetuate an underground 'Economy', not so much hidden but buried from sight.
Irony's abound aplenty here in this Series as political times and fortunes have shifted, but not seismically from Thatcher's Britain to Blair's New Labour society.
I wonder to what extent Barry's misses Tatiana's Russian 'relatives', are associated with Gang Master Yorgo and his colleagues.
In the original 1st Series The Magnificent 7 decamp to Germany, under PM Maggie Thatcher to find work.
'Ironically' the Tories got elected under a, banner advertising slogan 'Labour isn't working'.
The 'Irony' being in the words of Tory hatchet man Norman Tebbit, "If you want a job be prepared to travel to it, On your bike'.
Of course the Likely Lads weren't exactly expecting to have to virtually emigrate to get one.
Britain was now in Europe and they ended up helping, to build the German 'Economic Miracle'.
Conservative politicians were continually attacking British workers and holding up, the German counterparts for their "Hard Work" in rebuilding the country.
Whereas the German economic story was rather more nuanced, for underpinning their system was what were known as the 'Guest Workers'.
There were low skilled work that employers, couldn't get Germans to do because of low wages.
So they employed labour from, places further afield like Eastern Europe and Turkey.
The 7 thought they were the European under class as Oz remarked of the accommodation, of a manky hut being like "Stalag 17".
But they found out that it was actually the Turks on the site, who were being treated the worst of all the workers.
And Turkey is the one country that the European community, don't want in their Christian club under any circumstances.
Now in this series are the circumstances really that different for the lads?
Barry likes to think that he's better off now because of his business acumen, which proves "he is no longer a radish". But in reality he is still the lemon having a woman rapping him around her little finger, and he actually believes that she wants him.
In Germany Neville was living on naff all in a hut while sending the bulk home, to the misses for the family. While she didn't believe him preferring the tales her girlfriends conjured up, of him living the life of Reilly while sending her naff all.
Now he and the misses are in business together but up to their neck in hock, desperately trying to conn the bank into being lenient with their overdraft.
Dennis like Nev went to Germany for the same economic reasons, except for Den his wife played him for a fool. She strung him along through her divorce and, then reconciliation when she thought she'd lost a soft touch. But his problems had more chapters to run, and now he is at his lowest ebb driving taxis on the "Graveyard Shift".
Moxie always seemed dogged by misfortune and the old bill but he certainly could never have guessed, that he would get the offer he couldn't refuse of being a coppers nark?
Oz the mover and shaker businessman hardly no his "Business yous canner refuse", is in reality much more like the old Oz than the new reformed one.
Why because his business partner is one of the few tycoon 'High Flyers', actually found out and they make each other's acquaintance in the nick.
Jeffrey Grainger is typically slippery with of course no funds, of his own to invest in his brilliant business venture.
No what he really needs are gullible mugs who can't see further, than the neon lights of £ signs flashing in their eyes.
Oz thinking he has hit on a virtual gold mine tries to entice his mates with "nay bother lads we're the Contractors on this job, not the labourers".
But for the "lads" to make their pile, who are the labourers that will have to do the hard graft?
Any principles they may have previously harboured are now, likely to be well and truly torched in "these changing times".
As the 7 discard hard hats to become Gaffers employing a Gang Master from "Macedonia", importing his labour from a former European war zone.
The Magnificent 7 are now helping to fund and perpetuate an underground 'Economy', not so much hidden but buried from sight.
Irony's abound aplenty here in this Series as political times and fortunes have shifted, but not seismically from Thatcher's Britain to Blair's New Labour society.
I wonder to what extent Barry's misses Tatiana's Russian 'relatives', are associated with Gang Master Yorgo and his colleagues.
