The single currency, that doctrinaire coinage born of a fixated Brussels bureaucracy, is already looking devalued. The all-purpose euro, vehemently opposed by ordinary citizens throughout the community, is now sending twitches of alarm among major business corporations, at last aware of the overall cost implications, and the hefty initial bill of meeting conversion. A pan-European business survey this week from KPMG Management Consulting, covering 302 corporations with employees of more than 5,000, said that companies are braced for a body blow to earnings. Most expect the combination of lower product prices, higher labour costs, and the immense expenditure needed to change information and technology systems will cripple profitability in the short-to-medium-term.

While the one-off costs will be high these are expected to be dwarfed by longer term reductions on margins due to downward pressure on prices and upward pressure on wages. Conversion will cost the average large corporation around £30 million.

For non-European companies operating in the Community, the euro's affect on an already high wages bill could be the catalyst for a drift away to locations offering a lower cost base, a final pinprick in the over inflated revenue cushion given by our foreign job providers. Seagate may be but the first of the corporate mercenaries to fold their tents and depart.