The determination of the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, to take Britain into the European Single Currency appears undiminished by his dismissal of Mr Robin Cook from the Foreign Office.
The Prime Minister returned to Downing Street from Chequers yesterday to put the finishing touches to the shuffle of the middle and lower ranks of his second-term administration.
High on the list of widely expected casualties is the embattled Europe minister, Mr Keith Vaz, who was readmitted to hospital in Leicester on Saturday afternoon.
As the controversial Mr Vaz waited to learn his fate, opinion was growing at Westminster that Mr Jack Straw's appointment as Foreign Secretary meant, in effect, that Mr Blair would run foreign policy himself - and that the eventual decision to join the euro would still turn on the most important relationship in the Labour government, that between Mr Blair and the Chancellor, Mr Gordon Brown.
Sunday newspapers yesterday offered conflicting accounts of the pressures leading to the headline-grabbing dismissal which seems to have come as a greater shock to Mr Cook than to almost anyone else in Whitehall.
According to one account Mr Blair acted to prevent an imminent war of words between Mr Cook and Mr Brown over Mr Cook's intention to push for a referendum on euro membership by the autumn of next year.
Another report suggested Mr Straw, a loyal Blairite, had pressed his case to hold one of "the three great offices of state" - not least because he, like Mr Brown, considers himself a potential candidate to eventually succeed the prime minister.
However some sources suggested last night that Mr Straw may have been as surprised as Mr Cook, and that until Friday afternoon he had expected to be moved from the Home Office to Environment.
Nor is there any serious belief that the appointment of the mildly-Eurosceptic Mr Straw will lead to a recasting of Mr Blair's grand European project.
Mr Blair is determined that the new government's immediate and relentless post-election focus should be on delivering improvements in the key public services. In that context it seems clear that the prime minister did not want the distraction of any public tensions between the Euro-cautious Mr Brown and the Euro-enthusiast Mr Cook.
However, the view has also quickly developed that Mr Straw could prove a powerful asset in selling the "pragmatic" case for joining the euro, once Mr Blair and Mr Brown reach their historic moment of decision.
By contrast, it seems, Mr Cook was considered altogether too "gung-ho" about the euro, while being held unpopular in the country at large, and not particularly telegenic. Moreover, during an election campaign interview with the BBC's Jeremy Paxman, Mr Cook spectacularly failed the interviewer's repeated invitations to explain or define the "political" case for euro membership.
It is reported, meanwhile, that Mr Cook - who only reluctantly agreed to remain in cabinet as the new Commons' leader - has been promised the continued use of the Foreign Secretary's official London residence as a consolation for his shock sacking.
Following the pattern he established when first appointed Home Secretary in 1997, the more modest Mr Straw has opted to continue living at his family home in South London.
Mr Cook - who had apparently thought to serve at least two more years as Foreign Secretary, and thus surpass Ernest Bevin's record - was said to enjoy the palatial Pall Mall residence, and the Chevening mansion in Kent which also goes with the post. And it seems his tastes and sensitivities have been rewarded and soothed by Mr Blair - just as Lady Thatcher allowed Mr (now Lord) Geoffrey Howe to take Dorneywood, the traditional residence of chancellors of the exchequer, after she moved him from the Foreign Office to the post of deputy prime minister and leader of the Commons.
After a period of reflection, Mr Cook professed himself delighted that Mr Blair had asked him to "come home" to the Commons and assumed responsibility for the piloting of the government's legislative programme.
The Deputy Prime Minister, Mr John Prescott, likewise yesterday insisted he had got the job he wanted, and rejected suggestions that his move from the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions to the Cabinet Office was a demotion.