Is the timetable for British membership of the European single currency shrinking before our eyes?
Might the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, lead a successful referendum campaign much sooner than we have been led to believe? Most people might consider the idea absurd - given the backdrop of prevailing British sentiment against the euro, the war of words over the so-called European army, and the predictable test of nerves ahead of this week's EU summit in Nice.
There over the next few days Mr Blair will perform a balancing act by now as familiar to him as to his hapless predecessor, Mr John Major. Mr Blair, the "good European", will bow to French plans for a substantial extension of qualified majority voting - arguing that the enhanced pooling of sovereignty is vital both to enlargement and the British national interest.
Mr Blair the "patriot" will then return to Westminster having "blocked" French plans to allow collective responsibility for the new Rapid Reaction Force, and proclaiming victory for the British "veto" in policy areas vital to the survival of the national identity. tax, social security, defence, border controls and immigration, and treaty changes.
Thereafter, we are told, he wants to hear as little as possible about Europe and the euro until well after the general election. The cabinet's leading Europhile, Mr Peter Mandelson, accepts the election will not be fought on this issue and that decision time for sterling might be well into the next parliament.
However, two critical developments in as many weeks may have encouraged speculation that maybe, just maybe, Mr Blair might find himself with a second golden opportunity to break Britain's euro-sceptic tendency.
The first was Mr Blair's decision to break with his Thatcherite legacy and the concerted attacks, led by the Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook, on press "distortions" of the European project.
The Chancellor, Mr Gordon Brown, was initially said to think Mr Cook stupid to turn on the press. But when Mr Blair and his official spokesman rowed in behind the Foreign Secretary, it began to look like a strategic decision of audacious proportions - to take on some of the country's most influential anti-euro newspapers, the Sun and the Daily Mail.
Second, came the seeming collapse of any remaining Tory belief in their ability to win the next election.
By any conventional standards this government should be in some difficulty. The voters may not blame Mr Blair for global warming. But one of the most memorable images of this autumn was of people in York, flooded out of their homes, up to their waists in water, pledging support for the fuel protesters.
It was always inevitable that the second wave of protests would fail to carry the popular support which so brutally tested the government's authority in September. But by November floods had combined with rail crashes, cracks on lines, speed restrictions, interminable delays, traffic chaos, mounting costs to business and spiralling demand for domestic flights to feed more public discontent.
For all the money so far pledged, Mr Blair is forced to acknowledge the government cannot avert the traditional winter crisis in the Health Service. The murder of a 10-year-old boy on a bleak council estate in south London, meanwhile, serves to remind us that the "underclass" is a feature, too, of Mr Blair's Britain. Yet in the midst of all this, the Conservatives are seemingly consumed by fevered speculation about the leadership battle to follow election defeat.
Nor is it all the fault of Mr Michael Portillo, fuelling speculation about his leadership ambitions by denying he has any. Indeed there is a strong suspicion in some quarters that Mr Portillo was set up last week by Central Office officials dedicated to ensuring Mr William Hague's survival. However, Mr Portillo certainly catches some of the flak for a process of unravelling, which some observers trace back to the Tory party conference in October.
Mr Portillo and Ms Ann Widdecombe, they argue, damaged the party by opening up the libertarian/authoritarian divide just as Mr Hague settled the European division and set about reconnecting with the core Tory constituency. And according to this version, Mr Hague himself hurt his electoral prospects by talking of the party's readiness for government.
The Tory leader can hardly campaign on the basis of his readiness to lead a strong opposition. Yet these may be the only terms in which the electors want to hear from the Tories now. And their abysmal failures in the recent by-elections suggest they have yet to impress even in that role.
Support for New Labour is demonstrably wide but shallow, and Mr Hague can always pray for "events". But he is running out of time if he is to avert a second electoral disaster, save his leadership, and give Mr Blair cause to doubt his ability to swing a referendum on the euro. If, come the morning after the election, he finds the Tory party pondering Ms Widdecombe's prospects, Mr Blair might well reflect on his first missed opportunity, and strike quickly the second time.