TONY BLAIR's launch of the National Changeover Plan - spending tens of millions of pounds preparing Britain to join the euro - is, he says, not a change of policy, only a change of gear.

But as the wraps now come off the leadership's previously cautious official outlook towards membership and its formerly thinly-disguised approval moves towards transparent support, what is now likely to move into overdrive is the political battle over the possible loss of the pound.

For, hitherto, it has been an issue that, despite being one of the most momentous in Britain's history and the biggest economic issue of this political generation, Mr Blair himself admits that it has mostly excited only politicians.

Now the touch-paper is well and truly lit with Mr Blair's assertion that the country and business need to be fully prepared physically for the eventuality of the euro.

So ordinary people, who will eventual make the historic decision on whether to join the euro or keep sterling, may at last turn the dragged-out debate into the political storm that its importance warrants.

So far, public opinion has been a mild blend of resistance and resignedness.

But it has hardly been the burning issue of saloon bar debate.

Most people are hostile to joining, but seem to accept it as an inevitability, particularly as business support for it appears strong and a pro-euro government stance has long been discernable.

But with this programme of preparation, the prospect of the pound disappearing in as few as five years is clearly visible - and it may be enough to shock ordinary voters out of their torpor.

Already, some of the Euro-sceptic newspapers are set for a brawl, declaring that the government is preparing to sell out sterling, no matter what the people think.

It is patently obvious that Tony Blair is now risking a rift in his affair with Rupert Murdoch.

And, perhaps, the sun now rises for William Hague - despite being declared dead by the Sun not so long ago - as his euro-hostile policy becomes a potential magnet for the doubting voters' support.

Behind his back in the Commons, however, big pro-European guns are loaded and could even blow the Tories apart for ever.

Indeed, Labour, for all the leadership's careful control, could also be riven by rifts.

But certainly, the stage is set for the political battle of the century.

The early acts of the drama may not yet have excited ordinary people - perhaps because the Tories' in-fighting was becoming repetitive and because, at the last election, Labour and the Conservatives were pragmatically eager for Europe to be kept out of the debate and succeeded so well that the anti-Europe Referendum Party sank without trace.

But get ready now for the thrilling climax - as Joe Public prepares to take part.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.