What could be more ludicrous than trusting someone to look after the pound when he publicly announced he would happily do away with it less than six months after he was elected?

And this is my first piece of advice to you here today: keep your eyes on the ball. Do not get involved in debates on Cabinet splits and government rifts. Do not let it be said that the government has not made up its mind on the euro. It has.

Whether you’re writing a press release or a leaflet or talking to your friends in the office or the pub, remember: Labour has decided to scrap the pound. The only question is how soon.

Every time a supporter of the pound says: "Gordon Brown is absolutely right to stand up to these europhile nutters" he adds to the Chancellor's authority – and brings closer the day on which his mortgage rate will be set in Germany.

If there is a split at all in the government, it is over the PR strategy.

Robin Cook, Stephen Byers and even (if you can believe this) Peter Mandelson are showing a commendable degree of honesty. They want to tell the voters now of their intentions.

Gordon Brown and Tony Blair – especially Tony Blair – would rather nobody talked about it at all until the election is safely behind them (an election which they wrongly assume they have in the bag, but that's a discussion for another day).

But never let it be said that Labour has no policy. Labour's policy is to scrap the pound.

So we must keep our eyes on the ball and get our message straight on the enemy's message.

And we must get our own message straight too.

Here again we must anticipate what the government is likely to try to do. We have had a hint of this already. Do you remember last year's relaunch of Britain in Europe starring Mr Blair and some formerly famous ex-ministers?

Last August, the literature said: "Britain in Europe is the campaign for Britain to join the single currency."

By September, the organisation's aims had transmogrified: "We will campaign," they now declared, "to ensure the British people reject the views of anti-Europeans who would undermine Britain's position in the EU."

We can expect a lot more of that. Ultimately, I think Labour would love to be able to present the electorate with a false choice: being "in Europe" – and in the euro; or being out of Europe altogether.

That is why it is crucially important that we do not give credibility to this false choice. It is possible to be in Europe but keep the pound. That is the policy of the Opposition and that is what they will be saying. It is, in fact, the desire of most of the British people.

That is why it is vital that we never give the impression that rejecting the euro means rejecting Europe itself, or that the secret agenda of the campaign is to pull us out of the European Union. It is not, and if we allow it to be seen as such we will find it a lot harder than we should to persuade people to vote with their instincts.

This will be a tough battle, but from the start we can take heart from the poverty of our opponents' case. Remember the silliness of the proposition: that we should abolish our national currency because we might not like the exchange rate.

And remember their rhetoric. Have you ever heard a pro-euro person really put the case in concrete terms that mean things? It's just a grand mixture of doom-laden metaphors.

You know the sort of thing they come out with:

"The euro train is marching on and we must take the helm or we will be left out in the cold without a paddle".

This nonsense is an insult to the intelligence of the British people. It simply will not do for an elected government to fob people off with clichés and half truths – or worse, a conspiracy of silence – until a time of their choosing.

It is painfully clear what the scenario will be at the general election. The Conservatives will stick to their promise: if William Hague is prime minister, he will keep the pound.

And what of Labour? Ah, Tony Blair will say, we’re much more democratic than that. We won’t lay down the law. If you re-elect us, we’ll give you a choice. We’ll have a referendum. If you say yes, we’ll go in. If you say no, we’ll stay out. What could be more democratic than that?

And you’d have to admit it has a certain ring to it. It is a good answer.

But it is not good enough. So here is my challenge to Tony Blair. If you are serious about democracy, if you are serious about listening to the people, if you are serious about abiding by the result, don’t wait for a general election to confuse things – call a referendum now.

He won’t, of course. He will procrastinate and waffle while spending our money on the National Handover Plan, ready to seize the moment and make his mark on history.

Either way, we have to be vigilant. We have to be ready to fight, whether this year or next year or the year after that.

There are already many campaigns and thousands of campaigners working to keep the pound.

William Hague is doing heroic work with the Conservative Keep the Pound campaign, spreading the message from the back of a truck and in dusty town halls up and down the country.

The Democracy Movement has become an expert campaigning organisation. Business for Sterling has established itself as an excellent source of research and robust quotes for the media.

Good people are using their positions of influence to push the debate in the right direction. People like Lord Pearson, who has introduced a Bill in the Lords requiring the government to investigate and publish alternatives for Britain to euro membership.

All these things are good. But when it comes down to it – and that time is fast approaching – there must be one campaign with one core message.

And what better basis for that message could there be than the truths that were agreed by the first Congress for Democracy in December 1998. This issue is not just about economics, business and party politics, important though those things are. It is about our democracy.

You probably all remember these by heart but they bear repeating. Indeed, they will need repeating until we are all blue in the face if we are to win this battle. Remember

When Tony Blair and Gordon Brown say the constitutional issues surrounding the euro have been "resolved", they mean they have been ignored. They will not get away with it.

So there is my advice. Don't play to the government's agenda. Don't be taken in by the split stories. Don't give Gordon Brown credibility. Don't say the government has no policy. Don’t forget the issues at stake.

And while doing your good work don't get so caught up ploughing your own furrow that you forget the core message: keeping the pound means a free and prosperous economy and an independent nation.

It is a good message and it is true. If everyone in Britain hears and understands that message, the pound is safe.

END