Currie described the 'Glasgow Triptych' as showing the 'story of the Scottish working class in the 20th century, as reflected in the relationship between an old shop steward and political activist and a young unemployed man.' He explained that the left-hand panel 'recalls the moment of the Labour victory in 1945, as remembered by the old activist and retold to the young man in the City Bar.' The central panel, 'The Apprentice', treats the early 1980s as years of decay, while the third, 'Young Glasgow Communists', shows a group of young activists planning for the future. The triptych is inspired by the work of Fernand Léger, the Mexican mural artists and the German Neue Sachlichkeit art of George Grosz and Otto Dix.