Mr Tony Blair has said Britain must end a "dismal history" of "opportunities missed" and adjust to the fact that she has "no economic future outside Europe". In his heavily-trailed speech to the European Research Institute in Birmingham the Prime Minister stopped short of declaring British membership of the single currency inevitable. And he signalled no change in the economic criteria by which his government would decide if and when to hold a referendum on the euro.
However, there was a strong sense of political inevitability about the government's intentions during a lengthy historical discourse in which Mr Blair lamented "the tragedy" of Britain's negotiation of the key European developments from the 1950s to the present day.
He met the core Euro-sceptic argument head-on, arguing that sovereignty was not merely "the ability of a single country to say no" but "the power to maximise our national strength and capacity" in business, trade, foreign and defence policy, and in the fight against crime.
And he said the terrorist attacks on the US had underlined Europe's centrality to Britain's international security interest: "The events of September 11th showed the vulnerability of our democratic way of life. No single country, even one as powerful as the United States, can defend those democratic values alone," declared Mr Blair.
On the markets sterling fell briefly to a four-month low against the dollar as traders sold the pound down on the back of Mr Blair's obvious enthusiasm for euro membership and his assertion that Britain "must be whole-hearted, not half-hearted, partners in Europe". At Westminster, meanwhile, the Conservatives - disappointed but not surprised by their defeat at Labour's hands in Thursday's Ipswich by-election-accused Mr Blair of "wasting time" on the euro argument while neglecting pressing domestic concerns over the state of public services. The Liberal Democrat spokesman, Mr Matthew Taylor, said the British public would be increasingly frustrated by the twists and turns of Labour's European policy. "Each time Blair blows hot, Brown blows cold. The government's policy on Europe and the single currency is a shambles," he declared.
Elsewhere, however, there was little doubt that Mr Blair's devotion of a second keynote speech to Europe in four days heralded the arrival of the promised autumn campaign to shift still-doggedly Euro-sceptic public opinion.
The former Northern Ireland Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson - still an important Blair ally - is to take-up the theme in a speech next week, and the expectation now is for a sustained ministerial assault through the winter as euro notes and coins become the physical currency for 12 of the 15 EU nations in just six weeks time.
"The tragedy for Britain," said Mr Blair yesterday, "has been that politicians of both parties have consistently failed, not just in the 1950s but on up to the present day, to appreciate the emerging reality of European integration.
And in doing so, they have failed Britain's interests." He continued: "Reversing that failure of imagination, mapping out a new vision for Europe - and Britain in Europe - is the task of this government."